But to understand the dynamic that led to this year’s depressing year for crypto, we actually should start a few years before 2018. In bitcoin’s early days, Mt. Gox was the go-to service for handling transactions. Then, in 2014, it halted transactions and slowly copped to a crypto-hack to the tune of $473 million, the biggest hack of its kind at the time, and it gave many people pause. But it was still early enough for people to believe that the blockchain system was still getting all the technical kinks out.
However, while there are some organisations that accept it as currency, others shy away due to Bitcoin’s dramatic price swings. Driven largely by speculation, the price per Bitcoin rose sharply from $1,151 in January 2017, to an all-time high of $19,783 in December the same year.* It then dropped to below $7,000 by February 2018 and rallied again to around $11,000 over a matter of days, before plunging once more to trade below $4,000. Subsequently, one of the key characteristics of Bitcoin that traders should understand is its potential for extreme volatility.

Of late, crypto prices have risen on the back of comments from billionaire Elon Musk and Ark Investment Management LLC's Cathie Wood. In late July, Elon Musk said Tesla was "most likely" to start accepting bitcoin as payment again. The comment helped the cryptocurrency race past the $30,000 level.
The nation’s president Nayib Bukele passed a bill in June that stated that from September 7, Bitcoin can be used in any transaction and all businesses must accept the e-currency as payment.