The digital currency of Bitcoin has lost around 18% of its value and has fallen to its lowest trading price in just under a year after a long period of slow decline. From a high of $1,100 in December 2013 the value has steadily fallen to around $290 per BTC, recovering slightly in the second week in October. The downward trend is somewhat of a surprise to many observers as Bitcoin had been making the headlines for all of the right reasons lately, receiving acceptance from many more business. The giant online payment solutions provider Paypal also stated that it was implementing the technology so that Bitcoin could be accepted by its merchants, and although that caused a slight increase in value, that increase has now disappeared. There are a number of theories as to why this is the case, one of them being that due to more business accepting the currency, leading to more Bitcoin being in circulation, it has actually forced the value down.
Another theory is that there are simply more Bitcoins available as each day more of them are mined. It’s estimated that each day that around 3,600 Bitcoins are created, and at current price that’s $1.2 Million appearing daily into the system, and in the long term this could very well impact the value of the currency. There are of course ongoing factors such as regulatory problems and competition from new digital currencies too, all of which will have a negative effect. Despite the decline however the bigger picture tells us that Bitcoin are still worth approximately double what they were a year ago.
In the world of online gaming Bitcoin is still yet to be embraced by the larger European and US gaming companies with most seemingly willing to sit it out until and if the currency becomes regulated, however there are many specialist Bitcoin casinos in operation, with the best of those being that of Bitstars.
