Some people invest their money in the stock market. Others might buy gold bullion. Others store their cash on their computer – in the form of Bitcoin. Bitcoin, an electronic currency, has steadily risen in value over the past two years, hitting $1,000 on New Year’s Day. That’s the highest value since December 2013.
Paul Vigna has the details on what’s causing Bitcoin to climb. He’s a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and co-author of “The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money are challenging the global economic order“.
He says part of the reason is that Bitcoin is still a relatively new and small thing.
“This is still a very nacscent thing,” he says. “Today is its eighth anniversary – the day that the creator turned it on. It is still a very small market. … It’s not hard to push Bitcoin price around a lot. That’s why you see a lot of wild swings.”
What you’ll hear in this segment:
– Why there’s a recent rise in value
– What China has to do with the rise
– How Bitcoin is becoming more accepted
