Bitcoin hits lowest price in months

 

Bitcoin has continued to shed value in January, reaching its lowest point in months, trading at just over US$42,250 at 2.30pm AEST.

Since reaching a $69,000 high in November, the cryptocurrency has rapidly lost over a third of its price.

Over the past week, deadly protests in Kazakhstan have caused more jitters in the Bitcoin market, with the second-biggest country for Bitcoin mining losing internet access and taking as much as 15 per cent of the network offline.

A graph from CoinMarketCap showing the price of Bitcoin over the past thr2ee months. (Coinmarket Cap)

Bitcoin today fell below $43,000 for the first time since September.

Many investors rushed into Bitcoin in 2017 and watched prices surge from about $1000 per coin to a little below $20,000 by December of that year.

More large gains were made last year, despite China clamping down on Bitcoin and banning mining and all crypto-related activity.

But investors are used to a bumpy ride.

Earlier this week investment bank Goldman Sachs predicted Bitcoin could more than double, to a little over $100,000 per coin, within the next five years.

An increasing number of top fund managers including George Soros, Stanley Druckenmiller, Paul Tudor Jones and have invested in Bitcoin.