Today, 10,000 bitcoins are worth more than $20 million.
Bitcoin is going nuclear. Its price is tearing upward, with each bitcoin worth $2,128 — a little shy of its all-time-high of $2,185 reached earlier Monday morning.
Just a year ago, it was trading at just $443, after deflating from what was then seen as the giddy highs of about $1,100 in late 2013. It has since embarked on an epic bull run.
“The Japanese have caught the Bitcoin bug and inefficiencies across markets are being exposed,” CryptoCompare founder Charles Hayter said in an emailed comment. “Irrational exuberance is taking hold as the Japanese stumble over each other to enter the Bitcoin market and drag up international prices.”
The digital currency has come a long way since 2010, when the purchase of the two Papa John’s pizzas by Laszlo Hanyecz from another bitcoin enthusiast marked what is believed to be the first “real-world” bitcoin transaction.
He posted on the Bitcoin Talk forum on May 22, 2010, writing:
“I’ll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas.. like maybe…