{"id":217377,"date":"2018-01-01T21:43:17","date_gmt":"2018-01-01T19:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=217377"},"modified":"2018-01-01T21:43:17","modified_gmt":"2018-01-01T19:43:17","slug":"bitcoin-starts-2018-by-tumbling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/217377\/bitcoin-starts-2018-by-tumbling\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin starts 2018 by tumbling"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>Bitcoin is already having a bad year.<\/p>\n<p>For the first time since 2015, the cryptocurrency began a new year by tumbling, extending its slide from a record $19,511 reached on Dec. 18.<\/p>\n<p>The virtual coin traded at $13,150 as of 12:58 p.m. in New York, down 8.1% from Friday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That\u2019s also a fall from the $14,156 it hit Sunday, according to coinmarketcap.com, which tracks daily prices.<\/p>\n<p>Bitcoin got off to a much stronger start last year, and then kept that momentum going, eventually creating a global frenzy for cryptocurrencies. In a sign of its phenomenal price gain in 2017, it rose 3.6% on the first day of 2017 to $998, data from coinmarketcap.com show.<\/p>\n<p>It ended the year up more than 1,300%.<\/p>\n<p>That rally drew a growing number of competitors and last month brought bitcoin to Wall Street in the form of futures contracts. It reached the Dec. 18 peak hours after CME Group Inc debuted its derivatives agreements, which some traders said would encourage short position-taking.<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Bitcoin.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-217379\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Bitcoin.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Bitcoin.png 1200w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Bitcoin-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Bitcoin-768x403.png 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Bitcoin-1024x538.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/217327\/bitcoin-dips-below-14000-as-south-korea-eyes-fresh-regulations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bitcoin dips below $14,000 as South Korea eyes fresh regulations<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bitcoin is already having a bad year. For the first time since 2015, the cryptocurrency began a new year by tumbling, extending its slide from a record $19,511 reached on Dec. 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":194070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[5537],"class_list":["post-217377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-bitcoin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217377"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217381,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217377\/revisions\/217381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}