Ongoing technical issues this morning on the MtGox Bitcoin exchange servers have caused the value of the digital crypto-currency to plunge by an additional 20 percent on top of last Friday's dramatic fall in value.
The currency traded for about $850 a coin for much of last week according to CoinDesk, which keep logs of Bitcoin's value over time, before plummeting to about $680 on Friday morning. Because of today's additional 20 percent loss, Bitcoins were worth just $538 at around 11 a.m. this morning – nearly half of what they reached last summer when the value of one Bitcoin soared to $1,000. The currency's value has begun to pick up again as the day has progressed to close at about $670.
MtGox is one of the largest and oldest Bitcoin exchanges in the world, but withdrawals to external wallets from its servers were suspended over the weekend as its technical team investigated issues with how withdrawal requests for Bitcoins are processed. The work required meant that the servers had to shut down, although they were supposed to restart this morning.
The exchange has now said in a statement that customers will not be able to transfer Bitcoins to an external wallet address until Tuesday at the earliest. This led to the dramatical plummeting in value of Bitcoin by nearly $310.
Bitcoin is known for its volatility of price and has seen many large fluctuations in its value in the past. The general trend is that the value will steadily increase for a few months before meeting dramatic fluctuations like the ones that we have seen over the past week, and investors in Bitcoin mining equipment are now beginning to become wise to Bitcoin's high price volatility.
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