You might have thought the performance of the Australian share market was exceptionally volatile over the past week or so. But wait until you see what happened with the Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) price.
Things have certainly quietened down on the stock market over the past few trading days. But last Friday and this Monday's sessions were some of the most dramatic days the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) had seen in many years. After all, it's quite unusual to see the ASX 200 drop by more than 1.5%, let alone the 3.7% it crashed down on Monday.
But that's nothing compared to what happened to the Bitcoin price.
On Thursday last week, the flagship cryptocurrency was going for just under US$65,300.
But, after losing 5.94% on Friday, another 5.34% over the weekend, and then a horrid 7.1% on Monday, the Bitcoin price got to a low of US$49,825.
That's a four-day swing worth 23.69%.
In Australian dollar terms, this four-day journey saw Bitcoin go from $100,537 a coin on Thursday to a low of $76,900 by Monday. In AUD pricing, that's only a slightly less wild turnaround of 23.51%.
But since Monday, the Bitcoin price has rebounded almost as dramatically as it fell. Since that US$49,825 low point, Bitcoin has surged ever since, reaching a peak of US$62,353 earlier this morning. That's $92,652 in AUD pricing, representing a 23.1% improvement on what we saw back on Monday.
Bitcoin price's volatility endures
This journey that the Bitcoin price has been on over the past week alone underscores the intense volatility by which the cryptocurrency continues to be defined.
For comparison, the stock market hardly ever falls by more than 20% top to bottom. When it does, it is usually over a period of months, not days. The only times it has come close to experiencing what the Bitcoin price has in the past week was arguably back in the 1987 market crash and, before that, the 1929 crash that preceded the great depression.
Bitcoin's proponents often argue that virtual coins represent 'digital gold' of sorts. That's thanks to the artificially scarce supply of the coins themselves and the limited production capabilities that miners are constrained by.
Yet it seems that Bitcoin is a long way from becoming the 'safe-haven' asset that gold is often touted as. That's judging by the eye-watering volatility that was on display these past seven days.
Let's see what the rest of August brings for the Bitcoin price.
