Thanks to Elon Musk and his 57.1 million Twitter followers, the noise around cryptocurrency is louder than it's ever been before. While the Tesla and SpaceX CEO is far from solely responsible for the alternative digital asset's rise to fame, his tweets have played a huge part in catapulting its value to new heights.
However, cryptocurrencies are intrinsically volatile. Since 2011, a year after bitcoin gained monetary value, the crypto poster child has fallen victim to its own inflated prices. That year, it went from highs of $32 (about £23) to lows of $2. The scale is different in 2021, but the volatility remains, with the cryptocurrency reaching highs of $64,000 and lows of near $30,000.
Despite bitcoin's fluctuating price, it continues to correct itself at higher values. In June 2020, the price of bitcoin sat at around $9,000. A year later, its value is fluctuating around $35,000. That's an increase of nearly 290%, a notable gain for longer-term investors.