Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency on the market, has been promoted by entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and governments like El Salvador, where its use is legal. (Illustration: Jovani Perez)

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to hit the market.. Conceived by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008, this digital currency promoted a libertarian ideal and sought to defeat traditional monetary and financial institutions after the global financial crisis that took place that year.

He Bitcoin (BTC) uses cryptography to ensure that its operations are not regulated by any institution or banking body, which has placed the currency at the center of a debate on its volatility, since it does not require intermediaries has been accused of facilitating illegal activities such as fraud.

It was on January 3, 2009 that bitcoin finally went into operation. with a lot of 50 pieces called “the genesis block”extracted on its own Satoshi Nakamoto. According to the official minutes, there are currently 19.30 million bitcoins in circulation.

Although this cryptocurrency was worth next to nothing in its early days, it quickly broke through the $1,000 mark and began to attract the attention of financial institutions; however, a hack of the MtGox platform, where up to 80% of units in circulation were traded, caused a sharp drop in its value.

Bitcoin ended up being worth up to $68,789.63also influenced by the comments of figures like Elon Musk, which made it the most important cryptocurrency despite the fact that organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) don’t see it as an alternative.

Physical representations of various cryptocurrencies.  (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)
Physical representations of various cryptocurrencies. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)

The price of bitcoin cryptocurrency for that day at 1:00 p.m. (UTC time) is $23,376.83 per unit.

This means that the registered digital currency a variation of -0.11% over the last 24 hours as well as a variation of 0.32% in the last hour.

Despite these advances, in the first weeks of May 2022, the bitcoin currency was immersed in the “cryptoinvierno” or “cryptocrash” crisiswhich also caused the values ​​of other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum or Terra’s LUNA to sink.

This is called “crypto winter” when prices drop unexpectedly and no improvement is seen or expected within six months of its onset. This last episode was motivated by several elements: inflation in the world and the proposal to ban the use and extraction of these in Russia, currently in conflict with Ukraine.

This disturbing term also alludes not only to the sharp drop in virtual currencies, but also to the decrease in trading volume and months of market stagnation, a phenomenon that is not new either, since a similar event was experienced in 2018 alone.

This latest crisis has led bitcoin to astonishingly 77% drop in value; while others like Ethereum lost 30.88% of its value during this month. The domino effect has also affected Terra’s stablecoin LUNA, which dropped more than 100% falling from $118 to $0.09, a blow it still cannot recover from.

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