![\"Cryptocurrency](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Cryptocurrency-percentage-change-comparison-graphs-bitcoin-ethereum-litecoin-ripple.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBitcoin fell below $15,000 after the cryptocurrency\u2019s biggest rally in two weeks ended a rout that wiped more than $9,000 off the price.<\/p>\n
The largest digital coin dropped 6.3 percent to $14,913 at 3:07 p.m. in New York, having earlier climbed as much as 3.6 percent. Among rival digital currencies, ripple rose 8 percent, while ethereum and litecoin fell, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n
The relatively quiet day for bitcoin comes on the heels of a five-day slump that reached 44 percent at its depths and took the coin below $11,000 on Friday. Just four days earlier, it rose within striking distance of $20,000 after a torrid advance that started in early December.<\/p>\n
Investors continued to snap up shares in companies often seen as a safer alternative to investing directly in the cryptocurrency itself. Digital Power rose in early trading after saying it\u2019s boosting its computing infrastructure to mine digital coins. On Track Innovation also advanced.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin futures on the CME Group exchange slipped 3.6 percent.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin\u2019s volatility is adding to an ongoing debate about how to value the digital coin which has surged about 1,600 percent this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody knows the ultimate value of this underlying asset,\u201d Edward Stringham, president of the American Institute for Economic Research, a Massachusetts-based research group, said on Bloomberg Television. \u201cWe cannot predict whether it\u2019s going to be zero or $1 million or anything in between.\u201d<\/p>\n
For skeptics doubting whether individuals and businesses will truly start using bitcoin as a medium of exchange — as opposed to some officially backed digital currency — the short-lived rebound from the past week\u2019s selloff portends further declines.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s much more likely once you\u2019ve made a big downward movement like the one we made last week that you have a bigger and more complex correction,\u201d Ric Spooner, a Sydney-based analyst at CMC Markets, told Bloomberg Television. \u201cOnce a market like this one locks into those patterns it becomes pretty good\u201d to follow via chart-based analysis, he said.<\/p>\n
Spooner said it\u2019s possible bitcoin could drop to $5,700 or $8,700 in coming months.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin fell below $15,000 after the cryptocurrency\u2019s biggest rally in two weeks ended a rout that wiped more than $9,000 off the price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":243124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44696],"tags":[187,48000,47974,47996,47998],"class_list":["post-243123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-bitcoin","tag-cmc-markets","tag-cme-group","tag-edward-stringham","tag-ric-spooner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243150,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243123\/revisions\/243150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\nNow read:\u00a0Bitcoin short squeeze here soon \u2014 Wolf of Wall Street<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"