The bitcoin price fluctuated heavily in 2017

On January 1, 2017, one bitcoin was priced at $970. Twelve months later, the price of the cryptocurrency climbed to its peak of $20,000. However, just in the last week of the year, the price plunged to $10,400, or 44 percent lower than the peak.

Nam, an investor, said many investors lost all the money they earned throughout 2017 within one week when the bitcoin price tumbled.

“Cashing in bitcoin is not for people with a weak heart,” he said.

Nam once worked in the financial sector, but he gave up the job to spend time on investment in bitcoins. The bitcoin boom has prompted thousands of Vietnamese to gamble in the cryptocurrency.

On December 22 the gap between the highest and lowest price reached up to $5,000, or 35 percent of value. Bitcoin prices skyrocketed within hours, but then tumbled dramatically. The bitcoin price last month soared from $8,700 per bitcoin to $20,000 and then dropped to below $11,000.

Phuong, who has been investing in bitcoin for one year, said he decided to hold bitcoin instead of surfing for investments. The 24-year-old investor made a fat profit when selling bitcoin at $18,350, triple the cost price.

However, Vien, an investor in HCMC, complained that the loss he incurred is at a ‘two-digit level’. The investor bought bitcoin at the price of $17,000 per bitcoin, but the cryptocurrency still cannot exceed the $13,000 per coin threshold.

“I hope the bitcoin price regains the VND17,000 level and if this happens, I will sell all bitcoins. I dare not expect profit,” he said.

Phuong is among the few investors who use their own money to invest in bitcoin. The majority of bitcoin investors make investments with borrowed money.

“The investors have incurred bigger losses because they have to pay interest for the loans,” Nam explained.

Encouraged by the galloping increase of the cryptocurrency price in 2017, people rushed to buy computers with strong configurations to mine bitcoins. A report shows that 1,500 bitcoin mining machines were imported to HCMC by October 2017.

Many people lost big money as they fell into swindlers’ traps. Promising a sky high interest rate of up to 144 percent, swindlers raised funds from rural people and disappeared.

The national television channel VTV discovered one of the rings – AOC - which successfully mobilized tens of billions of dong.

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