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Bitcoin investors have seen billions of dollars canceled from the total value of cryptocurrency over the last year, but some are hoping for a recovery in fortunes in 2019.
Bitcoin started 2018 with a value of about $ 17,500 (£ 13,800) per currency, marginally lower than the historical high of nearly $ 20,000 (£ 15,800) recorded in December 2017, according to the CoinMarketCap ranking website.
However, in April the cryptocurrency dropped to around $ 6,800 (£ 5,370) and then continued to drop to a minimum of $ 3,200 (£ 2,530) in December.
Following a slight increase in value, prices stood at around $ 3,800 (£ 3,000) starting at 9:00 am UK time in the UK.
Several factors were blamed for the crisis last year, which saw the total value of all bitcoins sink from $ 327 billion (£ 258 billion) to $ 66 billion (£ 52 billion) – taking bitcoins "from the size from the dimensions of Exxon Mobil to about the size of FedEx, "reports Quartz.
These factors include the September announcement that investment giant Goldman Sachs intended to launch a cryptocurrency trading desk. A heavy fork in the bitcoin network – where the digital token splits to form two new currencies – has then triggered mass sales in November, Forbes says.
However, while the cryptocurrency market is currently in a "bearish" state, which means that further declines will be expected, some experts believe that the cryptocurrency is destined to recover some of the value lost in 2018.
Sonny Singh, sales manager of Bitcoin bitcoin payment service, told the Daily Express that the digital currency could return to around $ 20,000 by the end of the year.
But Calvin Ayre, founder of bitcoin spin-off liquidity, suggests that cryptocurrency could "plunge to zero in 2019," the newspaper reports.
This does not mean that the cryptocurrency market will collapse in 2019, but that bitcoin will be replaced by a superior alternative, adds David Thomas, director of the London Globalblock cryptocurrency broker.
