"The value of Bitcoins, the "cryptocurrency" that some had thought would take over from more traditional currencies, has plummeted across exchanges – to a level where it costs more to "mine" them than they are worth.
Though there's no obvious reason why, part of the problem seems to be precisely what economists remarked on when its value began to spike as more and more people piled in: the appreciation in value was a speculative bubble, caused by people hoarding the currency, rather than the start of a new (or parallel) economy.
The value of Bitcoins on one of its main exchanges, MTGox, has collapsed since mid-June from a high where it was trading at the equivalent of about $30 per "coin" almost to parity now. That still marks an improvement over the year: on 1 January 2011, Bitcoins traded at 30c each."
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/oct/18/bitcoin-value-crash-cryptocurrency
Though there's no obvious reason why, part of the problem seems to be precisely what economists remarked on when its value began to spike as more and more people piled in: the appreciation in value was a speculative bubble, caused by people hoarding the currency, rather than the start of a new (or parallel) economy.
The value of Bitcoins on one of its main exchanges, MTGox, has collapsed since mid-June from a high where it was trading at the equivalent of about $30 per "coin" almost to parity now. That still marks an improvement over the year: on 1 January 2011, Bitcoins traded at 30c each."
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/oct/18/bitcoin-value-crash-cryptocurrency