Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Bitcoin's record-breaking surge means one man ended up paying £440m for two pizzas

Bitcoin's record-breaking surge means one man ended up paying £440m for two pizzas

Saturday's spike came exactly one year after the volatile cryptocurrency lost 50% of its value in the space of two days.

Bitcoin has surged to a new all-time high - with prices breaking £44,000 for the first time.

Saturday's spike came exactly one year after the volatile cryptocurrency lost 50% of its value in the space of two days and fell to £2,873. It has risen 1,431% in the past 12 months.

Bitcoin now finds itself in uncharted territory. While some analysts believe the digital asset could reach £70,000 this year, others fear that dramatic sell-offs could be on the horizon.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has warned people who buy Bitcoin should be prepared to lose all of their money


Part of the cryptocurrency's popularity lies in how its supply is fixed at 21 million, with new coins set to be gradually released between now and 2140.

Supporters claim this helps create scarcity - in contrast to traditional currencies such as the US dollar, where supplies have increased dramatically as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Tesla helped ignite interest in Bitcoin when the electric vehicle manufacturer announced it had invested $1.5bn (£1.1bn) in the cryptocurrency last month.

Estimates suggest that Elon Musk's company has already made more profit from this investment in a month than it did by selling cars across the whole of 2020.

But critics have accused Tesla of tarnishing its eco-friendly image, amid concerns over the impact that Bitcoin has on the environment.

Research from Digiconomist suggests that the cryptocurrency's annual carbon footprint is comparable to the whole of Slovakia, a country with a population of 5.5 million people. The electricity it takes to complete a single Bitcoin transaction would also be enough to power an average American household for 25 days.

Elon Musk has written many tweets endorsing Bitcoin - with Tesla recently investing $1.5bn


Bitcoin, which launched in 2009, reached a significant milestone last year when PayPal announced it would allow its users to buy, sell and store the cryptocurrency - and use it to make purchases at millions of merchants. The payment giant's crypto service launched in the US last October, and is due to make its debut in the UK later this year.

Last month, Mastercard also announced that it plans to start allowing its customers to make payments using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

But buying stuff using Bitcoin may not be a good idea - for several reasons. The cryptocurrency's network can only handle five transactions per second, while the likes of Visa can handle thousands.

Bitcoin's volatility can also have consequences. Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC in 2010, back when the cryptocurrency was worth pennies. Fast forward to now, and this crypto stash is worth a staggering £440m.

Annually, Bitcoin uses as much electricity as the whole of Chile


The asset's growing price in recent years has turned early adopters into millionaires, but not everyone has been so lucky.

James Howells, from Newport, threw away a hard drive containing 7,500 BTC in 2013, which would be worth £330.2m at today's rates. He has offered to pay the council millions of pounds for the chance to search a landfill site, but his requests have been repeatedly rejected on environmental grounds.

According to the Financial Conduct Authority, 1.9 million Britons owned cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin as of last June.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has warned that people who buy Bitcoin should be prepared to lose all of their money - and recently predicted that the cryptocurrency won't last.

Other senior officials, such as European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, have called for Bitcoin to be regulated globally - warning that it is used for "funny business".

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Called Viktor Orbán: "Why Are You Using the Veto"
Horror in the Skies: Plane Engine Exploded, Passengers Sent Farewell Messages
AI in Policing: Draft One Helps Speed Up Reports but Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns
Shame in Norway: Crown Princess’s Son Accused of Four Rapes
Apple Begins Simultaneous iPhone 17 Production in India and China
A Robot to Give Birth: The Chinese Announcement That Shakes the World
Finnish MP Dies by Suicide in Parliament Building
Outrage in the Tennis World After Jannik Sinner’s Withdrawal Storm
Class Action Lawsuit Against Volkswagen: Steering Wheel Switches Cause Accidents
UK Government Tries to Sue 4chan for Breaching Online Safety Act
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Cambridge Dictionary Adds 'Skibidi,' 'Delulu,' and 'Tradwife' Amid Surge of Online Slang
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
The CEO Who Replaced 80% of Employees for the AI Revolution: "I Would Do It Again"
"Every Centimeter of Your Body Is a Masterpiece": The Shocking Meta Document Revealed
Character.ai Bets on Future of AI Companionship
China Ramps Up Tax Crackdown on Overseas Investments
Japanese Office Furniture Maker Expands into Bomb Shelter Market
Intel Shares Surge on Possible U.S. Government Investment
Hurricane Erin Threatens U.S. East Coast with Dangerous Surf
EU Blocks Trade Statement Over Digital Rule Dispute
EU Sends Record Aid as Spain Battles Wildfires
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
China Requires Data Centres to Source Majority of AI Chips Locally, For Technological Sovereignty
Escalating Clashes in Serbia as Anti-Government Protests Spread Nationwide
Category 5 Hurricane in the Caribbean: 'Catastrophic Storm' with Winds of 255 km/h
Trump Backs Putin’s Land-for-Peace Proposal Amid Kyiv’s Rejection
Digital Humans Move Beyond Sci-Fi: From Virtual DJs to AI Customer Agents
YouTube will start using AI to guess your age. If it’s wrong, you’ll have to prove it
Jellyfish Swarm Triggers Shutdown at Gravelines Nuclear Power Station in Northern France
OpenAI’s ‘PhD-Level’ ChatGPT 5 Stumbles, Struggles to Even Label a Map
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
The World Economic Forum has cleared Klaus Schwab of “material wrongdoing” after a law firm conducted a review into potential misconduct of the institution’s founder
A Computer That Listens, Sees, and Acts: What to Expect from Windows 12
Bitcoin hits $123,000
Southwest Airlines Apologizes After 'Accidentally Forgetting' Two Blind Passengers at New Orleans Airport and Faces Criticism Over Poor Service for Passengers with Disabilities
United States Sells Luxury Yacht Amadea, Valued at Approximately $325 Million, in First Sale of a Seized Russian Yacht Since the Invasion of Ukraine
Russian Forces Advance on Donetsk Front, Cutting Key Supply Routes Near Pokrovsk
It’s Not the Algorithm: New Study Claims Social Networks Are Fundamentally Broken
Sixty-Year-Old Claims: “My Biological Age Is Twenty-One.” Want the Same? Remember the Name Spermidine
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
The Billion-Dollar Inheritance and the Death on the Railway Tracks: The Scandal Shaking Europe
World’s Cleanest Countries 2025 Ranked by Air, Water, Waste, and Hygiene Standards
Denmark Revives EU ‘Chat Control’ Proposal for Encrypted Message Scanning
Perplexity makes unsolicited $34.5 billion all-cash offer for Google’s Chrome browser
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
×