Bitcoin price: Latest bitcoin value charts as price hits record high

After a record breaking surge on the cryptocurrency exchanges yesterday, bitcoin settled down at around £5,480.70 ($7,200) today.

As of 10.02pm, bitcoin is trading at £5,420.84 ($7,121.36) per token, according to CoinDesk.

The staggering surge on Wednesday came on the back of the decision to scrap the controversial Segwit2x software update.

Segwit2x aimed to increase bitcoin’s bloc size to 2MB in an attempt to improve the token, but the lack of unanimous support from the community forced its creators to pull the plug.

But the decision still managed to have a strong impact on the cryptocurrency, with the popular token spiking at around 11 per cent.

Bitcoin has seen some incredible performance this month on top of a year that already saw it reach prices over seven times its initial value. 

The token entered November at a high of £5,138.29 ($6,750.17) before rising to £5,623.05 ($7,387) in just three days.

The boost can be attributed to Chicago-based CME’s decision to approve the token on its futures market by the end of the year.

Iqbal Gandham, UK Managing Director at eToro, said: “Plenty of respected institutions are investing heavily in the blockchain technology behind it, and recently the Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced that it will soon begin trading Bitcoin derivatives. 

“This all signals bitcoin’s entrance into the mainstream and the fact that investors are backing the idea that these technologies have the potential to remake our world.”

Bitcoin is currently the strongest and most popular of the digital currencies on the crypto markets.

According to CoinMarketCap’s calculations, there are currently over 16 million bitcoins in circulation, worth £90 billion ($119 billion).

Quite incredibly, in its infancy, the token was worth less than a tenth of a dollar.

At the start of 2017, bitcoin did not even reach £761.21 ($1,000), peaking on January 1 at a high of £759.45 ($997.69).

But the token continued to grow in strength and broke through £1,522.42 ($2,000) for the first time on May 20.

Then on August 5 the digital currency broke another record when it shot past £2283.63 ($3,000) for the first time ever.

Another big day for bitcoin came in mid-August when a hard fork in the bitcoin block chain gave birth to the sister token bitcoin cash and saw bitcoin soar past £3,044.84 ($4,000) – a 40 per cent rise.

Justin Short, CEO and founder of trading platform NOUS, tweeted at the time: “BTC $4k. It may be volatile but it’s not worthless.” 

But it has not been a smooth ride for the currency, and bitcoin still exhibits a degree of volatility that worries analysts about its feasibility.

Trevor Greetham of Royal London Asset Management, told First Post: “While cryptocurrencies are probably here to stay, they are difficult to analyse, wildly volatile and some may be prone to fraud.

“Diversification is a good thing but that doesn’t mean investing in everything just because it’s there.”