Bitcoin has helped spark a revolution in finance, economics, and business.Bitcoin surged to an all-time high above $7200, with its most recent rise attributed to strong demand in Zimbabwe, where the digital currency has been deemed illegal means of payment.
Throughout the weekend and continuing into the early week, BTC saw a strong rally that brought the price to an all-time high in Zimbabwe above the international rate of around $4000. The price of bitcoin on Zimbabwe’s exchange, BitcoinFundi, a Zimbabwe-based Bitcoin exchange, has been trading at an 85 percent premium at $7,200 per bitcoin on Wednesday.
Bitcoin analysts said the price had also been boosted by Zimbabweans seeking a safe haven for their hard-earned cash. The current cash crisis has inflicted an immense increase in value of Bitcoin. As more and more people are trying to convert their financial reserves to Bitcoin. It has forced the price of bitcoin to increase to by 85% premium as compared to the international Bitcoin prices.
The total cryptocurrency market cap entered Wednesday afternoon just above the $140 billion mark. It steadily climbed throughout the remainder of the day and into Thursday morning, eventually peaking at $147.3 billion at 9:00 UTC. This was the highest the market has extended since September 12. However, the market began a sharp decline shortly after reaching this peak, shedding more than $3 billion before settling down to a present value of $143.6 billion.
The use of Bitcoin in Zimbabwe has grown exponentially since the introduction of bond notes and the stopping of online payments buy most banks which has resulted in a restricted flow of cash into and out of the country.
The current market trend is pushing the price to new local highs. A trend that brings new highs shows a changing of tides as the bears begin to capitulate and the bulls begin to take over.
At the time this article was published (Thursday), the bitcoin price on BitcoinFundi had stabilized somewhat to $6,000, representing a premium of approximately 43 percent.
If you’re an SME selling goods or services online, you are surely familiar with the pains of collecting payments from your customers and clients. You should be accepting payments using bitcoin, mainly because its benefits to you are as a merchant, are numerous and the possibilities are endless; from fashion and jewelry stores to consumer electronics shops, to airlines, hotels, and restaurants, many of which are online and offline merchants.
Accepting Bitcoin is fairly easy to implement. It’s also a reasonable option for many industries. Like most decisions in business, whether or not a specific company decides to accept Bitcoin should be made carefully. Most notable international companies accepting bitcoin today are Microsoft, Expedia, Dell and Overstock.
Cryptocurrency, the digital currency based on the concept of blockchain, has been taking the world by storm.
