Even at the height of the greatest lockdown in human history, there was one industry that did not break a sweat. One that did not buckle even a little under the crushing economic downturn. The cryptocurrency industry.
With assets like Bitcoin sitting at a price per coin just shy of $6,000 and Ether sitting at a price per coin shy of $130 at the start of April 2020. With Bitcoin being the market leader and Ether being the most widely-used crypto, both assets showed unbelievable growth over the year. Bitcoin broke the $64,000 mark and Ether broke the $2,400 mark.
In May, hardly a month later, illustrating the volatility inherent in cryptos, Bitcoin plummeted to just over $40,000, while Ether gained somewhat to $2,700. A lot of Bitcoin’s recent volatility has had a lot to do with pronouncements by South African-born billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, founder of the electric car company Tesla. More about this later.
“If we look at Bitcoin, it was created as a brand-new technology; not only is it a new technology but it is unlike anything that has happened in the past in that what you’ve done is created a decentralized money system. In other words, a money system that is digital, peer-to-peer and not controlled by any government or central body ever,” says Ran Neuner, a South African cryptocurrency investor and co-founder and CEO of Onchain Capital, a Blockchain investment fund and advisory service.
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