A few months back we proclaimed 2021 to be ‘The year of the cryptocurrency’. It was five months ago (in crypto terms) and a whole raft of major currencies were flying high, having been set on a dramatic upward course around the start of the year. Since, though, this bubble has burst, caused by a number of significant setbacks for specific currencies as well as for the whole concept itself, such as the tightening of restrictions in China.

The biggest of them all was no exception to this downfall, and as CoinDesk data show, that summer drop was not the first but is probably the most dramatic in the cryptocurrency’s storied history. Having surged to an all-time high of over US$60,000 in April, Bitcoin has plunged to the almost US$30,0000 mark as of the end of July.

Now though, the Bitcoin roller coaster has raced skyward again, with the record-breaking price of over US$66,000 hit this week. While this went down to US$64,000 at the time of writing, the yo-yo hasn’t yet shown serious signs of giving in to gravity yet again.

— Martin Armstrong