Bitcoin is making a little comeback.
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The cryptocurrency has jumped above $7,000 and is up nearly 90 percent since the start of the year despite a few negative controversies, including a massive heist last week where hackers ran off with more than $41 million worth of bitcoin on one the world’s largest crypto exchanges.
According to Coindesk, bitcoin was up more than 2 percent hovering around $7,300 on Monday. While the price is a far cry from its high in December of 2017 of nearly $20,000, its price has steadily increased since a low of $3,212 last December.
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The gains come amid a slew of negative headlines. Last week’s Binance heist was one of the biggest security breaches for the cryptocurrency to date. The exchange announced that hackers ran off with more than 7,000 bitcoin after using a “variety of techniques, including phishing and viruses,” to tap into its systems. The breach forced the exchange to suspend all deposits and withdrawals for at least one week.
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On top of that, last month, the entire crypto market shed about $10 billion amid regulatory worries and questions around the legitimacy of tether also known as “stablecoin”, which has been pegged to the U.S. dollar.
In April, New York’s attorney general Letitia James accused both Bitfinex, a bitcoin exchange platform and tether issuer Tether Limited of hiding an $850 million loss and misleading investors.
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“Our investigation has determined that the operators of the ‘Bitfinex’ trading platform, who also control the ‘tether’ virtual currency, have engaged in a cover-up to hide the apparent loss of $850 million dollars of a co-mingled client and corporate funds,” James said in a statement, announcing a full investigation.
However, the debate around bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have always had its share of critics and supporters.
Earlier this month, billionaire investor Warren Buffett continued to slam bitcoin as a “gambling device.”
Buffett told FOX Business’ Liz Claman that it simply doesn’t produce anything substantive.
“[Bitcoin] doesn’t reproduce. It doesn’t speak to you. And it doesn’t do anything. It’s like a seashell or something, and that is not an investment to me,” he said during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
Meanwhile, billionaire investor Tim Draper is extremely bullish on the crypto, telling Claman last week that he believes bitcoin will take 5 percent of the global market share in four years time.
