Bitcoin price moves wildly, crashing 20 per cent in hours before regaining lost ground

Price swings in the world’s most popular digital currency are increasing as an 11-fold gain this year captivates everyone from individual investors to high-frequency traders and Wall Street banks

Coinbase, one of the largest bitcoin exchanges, tweeted on Wednesday that traffic on its platform reached an all-time high (Reuters)

Bitcoin rallied as much as 20 per cent from its Wednesday low, easing concern that an abrupt sell-off in the cryptocurrency might spiral into something deeper.

The digital currency climbed as high as $10,787.99 in Asian trading hours on Thursday, after touching a nadir of $9,009.15 (£6,688.64), according to prices compiled by Bloomberg.

The 21 per cent slump on Wednesday, triggered in part by intermittent outages at cryptocurrency exchanges, came just hours after bitcoin had soared to a new record high.

Price swings in the world’s most popular digital currency are increasing as an 11-fold gain this year captivates everyone from individual investors to high-frequency traders and Wall Street banks.

While the frenzy has prompted bubble warnings from observers including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, interest among traders shows few signs of abating.

Coinbase, one of the largest bitcoin exchanges, tweeted on Wednesday that traffic on its platform reached an all-time high, even as some users reported service interruptions and delays.

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