Bitcoins have been in the news quite a bit lately, as the trading value of this new virtual currency has been fluctuating like crazy over the past weeks.
The scale of the recent boom and bust has been staggering indeed. At the start of the year, a Bitcoin was worth $13.51. Earlier this week, it traded as high as $266. And on Thursday, it plummeted to less than $100, as one of the exchanges where Bitcoins are traded closed temporarily. This would be comparable to the exchange rate for the British pound soaring from $1.62 (where it was on Jan. 1) to $31.90 and then falling back to $12.
The topic got even more attention when we learned that Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss had amassed a rather large Bitcoin position.
The article linked above provides an excellent primer on the topic of Bitcoins. It will be interesting to see whether online retailers or marketplaces started accepting this virtual currency.
