Update: The price surge continues and Bitcoin price reaches $575. The price is up more than 7% or $38 today.
We reported on Wednesday that we can expect a further growth and the Bitcoin price reached $550 today. Finally the price broke the $550 border, even though later it decreased and it is currently fluctuating between $545 and $550.
Most of the notable Bitcoin news recently have something to do with Australia. About a month ago it was established that an Australian is the person who is most likely to be hiding behind the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym and that this week it has been announced that Ernst & Young will held a large Bitcoin auction in Australia. Now we bring you the news that two Australian start-up firms developed a platform that will allow people to buy Bitcoins for cash at their newsagent’s.
1,200 Newsagents in Australia Will Be Selling Bitcoins
Blueshyft – a start-up company from Sydney and the popular Australian Bitcoin exchange website Bitcoin.com.au worked together on a project that will allow Australian citizens to purchase Bitcoins for cash, at newsagents’. It has been reported that 1,200 small newsagents all over the country will be selling Bitcoins. The promoters expect around 15 million transactions during the first year.
The sale of Bitcoins will be a great benefit for the newsagents and other smaller retailers in Australia as the industry is one of the several where the revenues have been decreasing significantly, mostly due to the steep fall in the sales of printed newspapers, as most people shifted to the online editions. Australia currently has more than 4,000 small newsagents and most of them are individually owned. There is no reason to think that this venture will not work, as selling Bitcoins over the counter has already been introduced in Canada and it is quite popular. One owner of a small bus-stop newsagent, was quoted saying that he expects increased revenues from Bitcoin transactions.
While in the past it was common for people who are tech-oriented to be the main investors in Bitcoins, nowadays the popularity of this crypto-currency increased further as many large banks, as well as Stock Exchanges invest in Bitcoins. It is estimated that more than $1 billion is transferred daily using Bitcoins.
Price Reached $550, Oscillations Between $545 and $550 Expected
The Bitcoin price has been stable, fluctuating lightly mostly in the range between $530 and $530, until it experienced a rapid growth today, reaching even $550 at one point. Currently, it is slowly stabilising between $545 and $550. The price has changed almost 3% in the last 24 hours and that has happened quite a few times in these past two weeks.
The trade volume in the past twenty four hours was just above $76 million and the volatility remains high, at over 23%.
Most of the trading in the past 24 hours was USD/BTC and the largest traded volume was on Bitfinex, where almost $13.5 million worth of Bitcoins were traded. Trades in Japanese Yen and Euro has also been noted. As traded volume has gone up in the past 24 hours, even though it is still lower compared to few days ago, it cannot be said with a degree of certainty whether the price will grow or fall in the course of the weekend. Rapid changes are not expected though and we are more inclined to say that the price will remain more or less stable, with possible minor oscillations.