Bitcoin

Financial theorist and neurologist William Bernstein doesn’t believe that bitcoin fits the classic idea of a bubble; however, he claims he won’t be ‘wasting his time’ on it.

The former American neurologist turned to writing about investing during the 1990s. A few of his popular bestsellers include The Intelligent Asset Allocator, The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio, and Rational Expectations: Asset Allocation for Investing Adults.

Another week, another all-time high for the world’s most popular cryptocurrency as bitcoin price peaks above $6,300. It has been 10 days since prices advanced to unprecedented levels above $6,200 and the growing adoption and appetite for bitcoin has propelled prices beyond $6,300 following another record-breaking weekend. In the late hours of Sunday (UTC), bitcoin price touched a new record high of $6,345.

The Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland announced the decision to accept Bitcoin payments. The university has identified that Bitcoin is on the cutting edge of new technologies, and seemingly appreciates the direction in which cryptocurrency is heading.

“Its [Bitcoin’s] ability to disseminate knowledge on cutting-edge technologies such as Blockchain, as well as its desire to gain experience in the practical aspects of this novel area,” the University said.

The Bitcoin price (BTC/USD) broke through the $6,000 on Saturday, setting a new record high of $6,194.88, according to Coinmarketcap. The price increase allowed Bitcoin’s market capitalisation to exceed $100 billion for the first time. Bitcoin has since then retreated to lower levels and is currently trading in the low $5,900.

Bitcoin initially breached the $6,000 threshold Friday morning at only one exchange, Hong Kong-based Bitfinex, where investors can buy and sell cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. After remaining just a few dollars shy of the mark at other digital currency exchanges such as Coinbase, which is headquartered in San Francisco, Bitcoin officially crossed the milestone on all trading venues just as U.S. stock markets closed Friday.

UBS thinks cryptocurrencies are in a "speculative bubble." There are over 1,000 cryptocurrencies, bitcoin being the biggest by market capitalization, and many have seen huge rises in value over the past few years. Bitcoin for example is up over 470 percent year-to-date.

"We think the sharp rise in cryptocurrency valuations in recent months is a speculative bubble," UBS wrote in a white paper published last week.

Another Bitcoin split is in the works, with a group of developers planning to establish an off-shoot called Bitcoin Gold (BTG). On October 25, Bitcoin Gold (Bgold) will split off from Bitcoin to create an ASIC-resistant cryptocurrency. A few weeks later, a significant group of Bitcoin companies wants to hard fork according to the SegWit2x plan as defined in the “New York Agreement” (NYA), which will probably result in yet another new coin. According to Bitcoin developer Jimmy Song, the aim is for BTG to become “a better gold than Bitcoin”.

Bitcoin smashed through the $5,000 barrier for the first time on Thursday, jumping as much as 8 percent on the day as investors shrugged off the latest warnings on the risks of buying into the booming cryptocurrency market. Less than a month ago, BTC/USD was trading below $3000 for a while, following a crash from $4980.

Bitcoin, the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, has chalked up a more than fivefold increase in price this year.

The Eidoo ICO, which is currently unfolding, has already raised EUR 20 million (ETH 80,453) reportedly in hours across more than 10 million of the company’s EDO tokens. Those tokens can be used inside the Eidoo ecosystem, which in addition to the digital wallet extends to a decentralized blockchain-based marketplace and tools that support the use of cyrptocurencies.