As investor confidence in SA evaporates, Bitcoin price surges 21% in a week

Like any pioneering invention, Bitcoin is taking a while to capture the mass market’s attention. But for early adopters, it’s becoming their hedge against politically-inspired uncertainty, especially in nerve-jangling South Africa. Last week, when President Jacob Zuma tightened his grip on the country’s levers of power, the value of the untraceable, anonymous and globally transferrable Bitcoin jumped 21% in Rand terms. The cryptocurrency is being increasingly embraced around the world as a store of value by people suspicious at the motives and actions of those who control fiat currencies. The rational approach for the rest of mankind is, at the very least, to investigate why these pioneers find them so appealing. – Alec Hogg

By Gareth van Zyl, Fin24

Johannesburg – Demand for cryptocurrency Bitcoin has soared in the last week with prices surging just over 20% on South African linked exchange BitX.

The price of a Bitcoin on BitX has risen from R7 443 at 14:00 on May 26 to R8 998 at 10:00 on Thursday June 2.

A collection of bitcoins stand in this arranged photograph in London, U.K., on Friday, Jan. 29, 2016. The International Monetary Fund extolled the potential benefits of virtual currencies and said they warrant a more nuanced regulatory approach, at a time when the future of bitcoin, the most well-known example, is in doubt's. Bitcoin traded at about $379 on Jan. 20, about a third of its peak in 2013. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
A collection of bitcoins stand in this arranged photograph in London, U.K., on Friday, Jan. 29, 2016. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

South African founded but Singapore headquartered BitX offers a Bitcoin wallet service that allows users to buy and sell Bitcoins.

BitX also operates exchanges for the cryptocurrency in several countries that include South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Nigeria and Indonesia.

Business development lead at BitX, Werner van Rooyen, explained to Fin24 this week that Bitcoin – like any other product, currency or commodity – is driven by demand and supply.

“On the demand side, there has been a large increase in Bitcoin transactions on the Chinese yuan denominated (CNY) Bitcoin exchanges over the past few days, which has played a role in pushing up the price there,” said van Rooyen.

Read also: Bloomberg View: Banking’s rocky future as China, UK mull official “Bitcoin”

“When the price increases enough on one exchange, it soon starts pushing the price up on other exchanges around the world as people start to arbitrage, including South Africa,” said van Rooyen.

BitX’s van Rooyen further outlined two other trends affecting Bitcoin prices over the past few weeks.

The first centres on Bitcoin’s blockchain technology – the cryptocurrency’s public ledger which confirms and shares batches of transactions.

“Some financial institutions are starting to realise that the application of ‘blockchain technology’ is quite limited, so they are starting to look into Bitcoin again,” van Rooyen told Fin24.

Van Rooyen also pointed to “more demand from investment institutions and private wealth managers wanting to buy and hold Bitcoin as part of their portfolio or for their clients.”

“Generally speaking, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies are becoming more mainstream and better understood. Not just by banks and governments but increasingly by investors, businesses and consumers,” said van Rooyen.

Read also: US Regulator: Bitcoin now officially a tradable commodity, like gold, oil

Bitcoin halving event

Another key supply factor affecting Bitcoin’s price is what is called the ‘halving’ event, said van Rooyen.

Computers on the cryptocurrency’s network that process transactions are ‘rewarded’ for doing so in a process dubbed Bitcoin mining.

At present, 25 Bitcoins get released for every group of processed transactions known as blocks but this process is set to be halved in July.

This is a process that has been built into Bitcoin to control the likes of inflation and devaluation effects on the currency.

Bitcoin is only designed to have a maximum of 21 million units, meaning that it is similar to limited supply commodities like gold.

The next halving event then is set to be Bitcoin’s second such event since 2012.

“This will limit the supply of Bitcoin being released into the network,” van Rooyen told Fin24.

Read also: Bloomberg View: How the Chinese fell in love with Bitcoin

“Most people who buy Bitcoin today, believe that the price will be more tomorrow. This is often based not just on the many current advantages that Bitcoin holds, but its future potential as a global payment system or store of value too,” van Rooyen added.

Meanwhile, van Rooyen could not disclose the exact user numbers for BitX but he said that the platform is performing “really well across all metrics” since its launch in 2013.

In July last year, Cape Town headquartered internet and media giant Naspers [JSE:NPN] initiated a $4m funding round for BitX.

“We’re active in South Africa, Nigeria, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, with more countries launching soon,” said van Rooyen.

*Fin24 is part of Media24 which is owned by Naspers.

Fin24

Source: http://www.fin24.com/Tech/News/bitcoin-price-surge-on-sa-linked-exchange-20160602

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