Bitcoin price (BTC) tumbles, having risen as high as $17,000

The value of bitcoin reached as high as $17,000 early this morning before dropping back down to below $15,000 a coin.

At the time of writing, the volatile digital currency was trading 3.47 per cent below its opening price at $16,272.49, according to Coindesk’s aggregate index.

Yesterday, bitcoin broke through numerous milestones, rising thousands of dollars in a matter of hours.

Read more: The bitcoin bubble is a top concern for UK institutional investors

The mad rush into bitcoin comes as cryptocurrencies, once a fringe idea, broke through into the mainstream this year. That has pushed the price of bitcoin up well over 1,000 per cent since the start of the year and caused the total value of the cryptocurrency market to reach $400bn, according to CoinMarketCap.

Bitcoin was bolstered by the announcements from exchanges Cboe Global Markets and CME Group that they would begin offering bitcoin futures this month.

While this has caused some analysts to predict bitcoin rising further, reaching up to $20,000 or even $60,000, others have warned of short selling, bursting the buble of bitcoin.

Of the morning’s losses, Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at Oanda, said: “I’m not sure that traders will be particularly deterred by what’s happened this morning, although again, bitcoin is extremely difficult to predict and doesn’t exactly move in a logical manner.

“I do wonder whether the launching of bitcoin futures on Sunday is driving people to lock in profits on the expectation or fear of large short positions being accumulated.”

Read more: Saxo Bank’s made an “outrageous” prediction of bitcoin hitting $60k