<p>After the latest wild ride took the poster child of cryptocurrencies above $40,000 before a stomach-churning plunge, the million dollar question won't go away: how much is bitcoin actually worth?</p>.<p>The virtual currency barrelled to new highs to rise more than 400 per cent over the past year, before promptly sliding some 20 per cent and then settling around $36,000.</p>.<p>When it started life in 2009 as open-source software, bitcoin was essentially worth zero -- though within a year it had reached the heady heights of eight cents.</p>.<p>At today's market rates, bloated by a surge in institutional demand, the digital unit's market capitalisation is worth some $670 billion with myriad other crypto coins such as ethereum lifting the sector nominally close to the trillion mark.</p>.<p>Although that's small potatoes compared to the $68 trillion or so swilling around world stock markets, it is nonetheless the sort of financial territory staked out by Wall Street tech royalty such as Google, Apple or Tesla.</p>.<p><strong>Read: <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-trending/lost-passwords-lock-millionaires-out-of-their-bitcoin-fortunes-938437.html" target="_blank">Lost passwords lock millionaires out of their bitcoin fortunes</a></strong></p>.<p>One tech site, AssetDash.com, notes that bitcoin is currently worth around as much as Facebook and a little more than Chinese e-retail giant Alibaba.</p>.<p>Although deep-pocketed investors have recently become enthusiasts, crypto was in its early days the preserve of geeky amateur investors.</p>.<p>It is the latter who have mainly suffered as an estimated four million of the roughly 19 million bitcoin units currently in circulation have been lost.</p>.<p>"Lost" does not mean the coins have fallen down the back of the sofa or through a hole in a trouser pocket: they have been electronically zapped from the record, often because their owner has forgotten a password to coins hoarded on a USB stick.</p>.<p>One US developer mislaid his password after storing 7,002 bitcoins on one such flash drive, forcing him to wave goodbye, on paper (or rather, the trading screen), to around $280 million.</p>.<p>This week, Welshman James Howells desperately offered his local authority a quarter of his fortune to dig up a landfill site where he believes a hard drive he accidentally tossed away -- and which has since soared in value to around $270 million -- is buried. The council refused, citing the cost and logistical restrictions.</p>.<p>According to analysts at JP Morgan, bitcoin may be highly volatile but could go as high as $146,000 per unit, putting it in competition with gold as an asset class in terms of private sector investment.</p>.<p>That volatility, as well as the unregulated and decentralised nature of the bitcoin beast, are key reasons why many seasoned financial observers are scared off -- as well as the risk of "losing" their stash.</p>.<p>"Most of the lost bitcoins were acquired in the early days," said Philip Gradwell, economist with Chainalysis.</p>.<p>Gradwell said that around one in five bitcoins in circulation today have not budged from their location in five years -- since days when the unit was worth not much more than $100.</p>.<p>"One or two million of those belong to Satoshi himself," added Gradwell, referring to the creator of the coin, whose identity remains unknown.</p>.<p>He added that the bulk of investors are not day-to-day traders, but people making a long-term punt -- and he estimates that the spectacular price boom of recent weeks has involved only around five millions units.</p>.<p>Patrick Heusser, head of trading at Swiss trader Crypto Broker, said that following the trading volumes of a variety of cryptocurrencies, rather than just bitcoin, would give a better idea of how the market is faring.</p>.<p>"Ethereum has a lot of activity on the chain, but on the litecoin side there is almost nothing going on," said Heusser, with the former valued at some $138 billion currently, and the latter at $10 billion.</p>.<p>Heusser suggested the rises have been largely a bitcoin slipstream effect, and he cautioned against drawing parallels with gold.</p>.<p>"To be honest I don't believe that it is a very powerful or insightful metric inside what's going on in the crypto market," Heusser concluded.</p>.<p>After years of experience on traditional currency markets, he judged that it was early days for the crypto equivalent.</p>.<p>"We're still a small fish," he said.</p>
<p>After the latest wild ride took the poster child of cryptocurrencies above $40,000 before a stomach-churning plunge, the million dollar question won't go away: how much is bitcoin actually worth?</p>.<p>The virtual currency barrelled to new highs to rise more than 400 per cent over the past year, before promptly sliding some 20 per cent and then settling around $36,000.</p>.<p>When it started life in 2009 as open-source software, bitcoin was essentially worth zero -- though within a year it had reached the heady heights of eight cents.</p>.<p>At today's market rates, bloated by a surge in institutional demand, the digital unit's market capitalisation is worth some $670 billion with myriad other crypto coins such as ethereum lifting the sector nominally close to the trillion mark.</p>.<p>Although that's small potatoes compared to the $68 trillion or so swilling around world stock markets, it is nonetheless the sort of financial territory staked out by Wall Street tech royalty such as Google, Apple or Tesla.</p>.<p><strong>Read: <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-trending/lost-passwords-lock-millionaires-out-of-their-bitcoin-fortunes-938437.html" target="_blank">Lost passwords lock millionaires out of their bitcoin fortunes</a></strong></p>.<p>One tech site, AssetDash.com, notes that bitcoin is currently worth around as much as Facebook and a little more than Chinese e-retail giant Alibaba.</p>.<p>Although deep-pocketed investors have recently become enthusiasts, crypto was in its early days the preserve of geeky amateur investors.</p>.<p>It is the latter who have mainly suffered as an estimated four million of the roughly 19 million bitcoin units currently in circulation have been lost.</p>.<p>"Lost" does not mean the coins have fallen down the back of the sofa or through a hole in a trouser pocket: they have been electronically zapped from the record, often because their owner has forgotten a password to coins hoarded on a USB stick.</p>.<p>One US developer mislaid his password after storing 7,002 bitcoins on one such flash drive, forcing him to wave goodbye, on paper (or rather, the trading screen), to around $280 million.</p>.<p>This week, Welshman James Howells desperately offered his local authority a quarter of his fortune to dig up a landfill site where he believes a hard drive he accidentally tossed away -- and which has since soared in value to around $270 million -- is buried. The council refused, citing the cost and logistical restrictions.</p>.<p>According to analysts at JP Morgan, bitcoin may be highly volatile but could go as high as $146,000 per unit, putting it in competition with gold as an asset class in terms of private sector investment.</p>.<p>That volatility, as well as the unregulated and decentralised nature of the bitcoin beast, are key reasons why many seasoned financial observers are scared off -- as well as the risk of "losing" their stash.</p>.<p>"Most of the lost bitcoins were acquired in the early days," said Philip Gradwell, economist with Chainalysis.</p>.<p>Gradwell said that around one in five bitcoins in circulation today have not budged from their location in five years -- since days when the unit was worth not much more than $100.</p>.<p>"One or two million of those belong to Satoshi himself," added Gradwell, referring to the creator of the coin, whose identity remains unknown.</p>.<p>He added that the bulk of investors are not day-to-day traders, but people making a long-term punt -- and he estimates that the spectacular price boom of recent weeks has involved only around five millions units.</p>.<p>Patrick Heusser, head of trading at Swiss trader Crypto Broker, said that following the trading volumes of a variety of cryptocurrencies, rather than just bitcoin, would give a better idea of how the market is faring.</p>.<p>"Ethereum has a lot of activity on the chain, but on the litecoin side there is almost nothing going on," said Heusser, with the former valued at some $138 billion currently, and the latter at $10 billion.</p>.<p>Heusser suggested the rises have been largely a bitcoin slipstream effect, and he cautioned against drawing parallels with gold.</p>.<p>"To be honest I don't believe that it is a very powerful or insightful metric inside what's going on in the crypto market," Heusser concluded.</p>.<p>After years of experience on traditional currency markets, he judged that it was early days for the crypto equivalent.</p>.<p>"We're still a small fish," he said.</p>