Bitcoin 'rises'

Approaching the $100,000/Bitcoin mark, equivalent to nearly 2.5 billion VND/Bitcoin converted at the current exchange rate, it can be said that each coin is worth a fortune. For many people, the regretful feeling of "if only" in the past few days is probably still there.

Although Vietnamese law does not recognize virtual currency, Bitcoin is still a digital asset used by hundreds of millions of people around the world. However, because the maximum number of Bitcoins is limited, even if AI is more developed and the digital technology platform is more modern, there will only be a maximum of 21 million of this virtual currency for the whole world to share.

Mathematically, Bitcoin cannot be created or counterfeited like traditional currencies. This limited supply makes Bitcoin immune to inflation, creating scarcity. As more individuals and organizations use it, that scarcity will push its value higher.

Bitcoin was created in 2008. By 2010, this currency began to be used to exchange goods and services. At that time, someone bought 2 pizzas with 10,000 Bitcoins. This event marked the ability to exchange Bitcoin for real products. Over the past 16 years, this virtual currency that has made the world crazy has traveled from 0 USD to almost 100,000 USD.

Anyone who studies the history of this currency knows that the Bitcoin trading market has been quite unpredictable. There have been many times when the “bubble burst” when the price dropped from tens of thousands of USD to just a few thousand USD. However, there have also been many times when Bitcoin broke its peak.

The question is why is Bitcoin rising now? Will it break the $100,000 mark in the short term, or will it fall? Some say that the sharp rise in Bitcoin is related to the US government's stance on virtual currencies.

Bitcoin’s record-breaking price surge comes on the back of expectations that Donald Trump, the 47th President, will loosen regulations on cryptocurrencies and deliver on his promise to make the US the “cryptocurrency capital of the planet.” The recent excitement in the cryptocurrency market following Trump’s election victory is understandable.

However, Bitcoin has yet to reach the $100,000 mark. Currently, each coin has dropped to more than $97,000. One of the reasons given for this decline is profit-taking. According to information compiled by a number of international cryptocurrency experts, November 2024 saw a record amount of Bitcoin sold by long-term investors, accounting for 21% of the total amount of Bitcoin they sold since the price bottomed out at $15,479 two years ago.

So will Bitcoin rise again? In the short term, this is relatively difficult. The selling pressure is very high, especially from the group of individuals and organizations that own a large amount of Bitcoin, causing the value of this currency to gradually decrease. However, in the long term, Bitcoin still has a certain appeal.

No one can predict exactly where Bitcoin will go. But one thing is certain: technically, there is no limit to the price of Bitcoin in fiat terms. The reason is simple: while the supply of Bitcoin is fixed, the supply of fiat currency is unlimited.

In our country, if you want to invest in Bitcoin, you need to understand that Vietnam does not allow the issuance, supply, or use of Bitcoin or similar virtual currencies. Investors will not be protected if they are scammed.

In addition, when Bitcoin increases in value, it is easy to attract other cryptocurrencies to mushroom, luring "newbies" into a gambling vortex. Many people are scammed by this virtual currency, hoping to recover their capital with another newly-born virtual currency. Just like that, like moths flying into the light, loss after loss, being scammed and then being scammed again.

I once knew someone in Hai Duong City who suffered heavy losses due to investing in Bitcoin at the end of 2018, when the price of each coin was only about 3,100 USD/Bitcoin, after reaching nearly 20,000 USD/Bitcoin at the end of 2017. After that, this person continued to be disillusioned and received bitter fruit when he was "involved" in the famous CBP (Cashback Pro) virtual currency investment scam in mid-2024.