Exactly one week after the price of bitcoin topped $10,000 for the first time, the cryptocurrency shot to another record Sunday, peaking at $11,773.
That capped a 30% surge since Thursday, when bitcoin bottomed out at $9,021 after plunging more then 20% from last weekend’s high. At one point Sunday, bitcoin jumped more than $500 in an hour.
By late Sunday afternoon, bitcoin dropped to $11,005.
Its offshoot, bitcoin cash, also surged Sunday, peaking at $1,606 — just off its all-time high of $1,621 — before setting to $1,482, and ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, rose to $480 before dipping back to $464.
Bitcoin’s market cap as of Sunday afternoon stood at $186.8 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.com, and its price is up more than 1,000% this year.
The steadily rising price and wild price swings have many experts warning that bitcoin is in a bubble that’s bound to pop.
Last week, Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said bitcoin is “smoke and mirrors” and “ought to be outlawed” because of its lack of oversight.
But the naysayers aren’t scaring off the die-hards.
Former hedge-fund manager Michael Novogratz recently predicted bitcoin could hit $40,000 by the end of 2018, and last week software tycoon John McAfee doubled down on his bet to self-cannibalize if bitcoin didn’t hit $1 million by 2020.