{"id":525145,"date":"2024-02-15T10:23:36","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T08:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=525145"},"modified":"2024-02-15T10:25:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T08:25:33","slug":"bitcoin-hits-r1000000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cryptocurrency\/525145-bitcoin-hits-r1000000.html","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin hits R1,000,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

The value of bitcoin went through R1 million on South Africa\u2019s major cryptocurrency exchanges in the early hours of Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin last hit these levels on 8 November 2021<\/strong><\/a>. However, in dollar terms, it was trading at over $66,000 per bitcoin back then.<\/p>\n

Later that month, Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $69,000.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin is currently trading at $52,500 \u2014 much lower than in November 2021.<\/p>\n

This shows how much the rand has weakened in the past two years.<\/p>\n

On 8 November 2021, the rand was around R15.20 to the dollar. Today, it is over R19 \u2014 a 25% drop in value against the greenback.<\/p>\n

In a statement regarding the milestone, cryptocurrency exchange and wallet provider Luno said the performance of Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs) buoyed renewed investor confidence.<\/p>\n

These have attracted over $34 billion from investors since being approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 10 January.<\/p>\n

Luno said the influx of institutional money via ETFs is evidence of a positive shift in how traditional investment institutions view cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin\u2019s market capitalisation, the total of all Bitcoins in issue, surpassed $ 1 trillion yesterday amid recent traditional market unrest fuelled by higher-than-expected CPI inflation data in the US.<\/p>\n

Several analysts anticipate continued growth on the back of ongoing bullish sentiment, Luno stated.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAnother potential reason for the price uptick is the Bitcoin halving expected to take place mid-April 2024,\u201d said Luno South Africa country manager Christo de Wit.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoughly every four years, Bitcoin rewards paid to miners are cut in half as a way to ensure that an infinite supply of bitcoin doesn\u2019t erode its value further down the line,\u201d De Wit explained.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that Bitcoin\u2019s protocol dictates that its supply is capped at 21 million coins.<\/p>\n

CoinMarketCap reports that there are currently 19.63 million bitcoins in supply. This means only 1.37 million remain to be mined.<\/p>\n

Because of the halving mechanic, the last bitcoin will likely only be mined in 2140.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach previous halving has historically had a major impact on the price,\u201d said De Wit.<\/p>\n

He said the first halving saw price increases of more than 8,000% from pre-halving levels.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin\u2019s value also increased roughly 3,000% over the second halving cycle in 2016.<\/p>\n

Between the third bitcoin halving on 11 May 2020 and the all-time high on 10 November 2021, the price of bitcoin increased around 740%.<\/p>\n

The last halving in 2020 was followed by a bull run that ended in an all-time high price of almost $65,000.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin\u2019s next halving event is expected to happen on 14 April 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin’s value has surged since September last year, climbing from under R500,000 and touching R1 million on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":514669,"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":[187,81105,35,42992],"class_list":["post-525145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-bitcoin","tag-christo-de-wit","tag-headline","tag-luno"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525145"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}