Topic: [2016-03-04]Bitcoin Price Dips Closer to $400 Following Network Disruptions (Read 320 times)

While the bitcoin network’s capacity challenges have been generating substantial visibility, the digital currency enjoyed robust trading volume this week, with market participants transacting more than 28m BTC in the seven days through 12:00 UTC on 4th March.

Likewise, bitcoin's price was relatively stable, falling less than 1% heading into 12:00 UTC on Friday. This figure increased to 3.3% as the price deflated to $409 by 23:59 UTC, figures from the CoinDesk USD Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) reveal.

This figure was $10 higher last week when bitcoin traded at $421.01 at 00:00 (UTC) on 26th February. The relatively modest decline was comparable to movements from week before, when bitcoin climbed only 1% after fluctuating between $410 and $450.

Still, the digital currency experienced sharp gyrations this week amid news that the network was exceeding its capacity for transactions, a development that resulted in users paying sometimes substantially higher fees.

Overall, volatility was tight this week, as bitcoin enjoyed gains on 26th February, rising 2.9% to $431.69 by 23:00 (UTC). The currency hit a local peak over the next few hours, reaching $434.14 by 02:00 (UTC) on 27th February.

Bitcoin then dropped within the next 24 hours or so, hitting $422.07 at 01:00 (UTC) on the following day. This represented a 2.8% decline.

This volatility continued, as the digital currency surged to $440.48 by 10:00 (UTC) on 29th February, 4.4% higher than the low of $422.07 bitcoin encountered early the day before. The currency quickly lost some of these gains, depreciating to $431.26 at 07:00 (UTC) on 1st March.

Bitcoin continued to waver between $420 and $440, before reaching $419.56 and then $416.30 at 00:00 (UTC) and 05:00 (UTC) on 3rd March.

For the remainder of the week, the currency largely fluctuated between $415 and $425, before ending under $410.

http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-price-400-network-disruption/