Bitcoin hits $11,000 mark, shows no signs of slowing
Bitcoin prices touched a new high of $11,300 on Wednesday less than a day after topping $10,000 despite concerns about the cryptocurrency's security and investor fears of a bubble.
The virtual currency has increased in value by a factor of 10 in 2017, but its growth has been tremendously volatile. Bitcoin prices lost 20 percent of its value over the weekend ending Nov. 12 before reaching a new high five days later.
Many investors have noted that Bitcoin is inherently risky because it has no underlying value, unlike national currencies controlled by a central bank. Wall Street veterans from JP Morgan Chase head Jamie Dimon to Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett have issued warnings of a bitcoin bubble.
"There is nothing to support Bitcoin except the hope that you will sell it to someone for more than you paid for it," Vanguard founder Jack Bogle said this week in echoing those concerns.
Still, Bitcoin's growing popularity is an indicator that the public is getting increasingly comfortable with the digital currency. Nasdaq intends to launch bitcoin futures in the first half of next year, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday; while the broker Cantor Fitzgerald will launch bitcoin derivatives on a private exchange.
Jerome Powell, the White House's nominee to chair the Federal Reserve, told a Senate committee on Tuesday that blockchain, the technology powering Bitcoin, could have applications in the broader world of commerce.
