And the bitcoin frenzy continues.
The popular digital currency came close to hitting the $2,800 mark on Thursday, only to drop close to $400 in one hour—though it was still up on the day. Bitcoin’s price hit a new all-time high of $2,760.10 on Bitstamp thanks to an uptick in demand out of Asia, but that rally ended shortly after the price fell to $2,263.72 several hours later.
Trade denominated in the Japanese remained solid, accounting for about 31 percent of Thursday’s trade volume, while Chinese yuan and Korean won accounted for 16 and 12 percent, respectively, according to CryptoCompare data.
Japan, if you recall, saw a burst in digital currency trading activity after regulators introduced new rules that treat bitcoin as part of the banking system.
Meanwhile, the “unprecedented traffic and trading” caused digital currency exchange Coinbase to suffer outages this week.
Due to heavy trading traffic, Coinbase’s website experienced card verification failures and slow load times, which have already been resolved, according to its status page.
Coinbase said it’s working to resolve all issues.
Russia wants virtual currencies treated as “digital commodities”
In Russia, the central is now calling for virtual currencies like bitcoin to be treated as “digital commodities.”
Olga Skorobogatova, deputy of the Russian Central Bank, was quoted by Interfax saying that the bank is planning to “adopt regulations with a specific focus on tax, controls and accountability like [those which apply to] digital commodities.”
“With virtual currency being emitted which is not backed by the gold standard and remains beyond control from the point of view of supply, sooner or later this can lead to instability in financial markets,” Skorobogatova said, according to the Russian news outlet.
For years, authorities in Russia have been very vocal in opposing digital currency in the country. In fact, ministry officials had been working on a draft law that will punish those who use bitcoins and engage cryptocurrency trade and mining activities, but that bill met strong opposition even before reaching the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament.
Now, the country has made a 180-turn and is on the way towards adopting formal regulations on cryptocurrency by 2018.
Current bitcoin price
Bitcoin’s price reached $2,599.12 during Friday’s early morning trading.
