![The latest bout of roller-coaster volatility recalls past boom-and-bust cycles including the 2017 bubble, and leaves investors debating whether this is a healthy correction or the end of the latest bull run for cryptocurrencies [File: Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/bitcoinn.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Traders seeking clues on investor appetite for risk are scrutinising the crytpocurrency’s turbulent 12 percent slide.
Crypto
![Gary Gensler’s expected nomination to lead the United States Securities and Exchange Commission is seen as ushering in an era of greater federal oversight of the $1 trillion cryptocurrency market [File: Noriko Hayashi/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/bitcoinn-2.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Biden’s reported choice to lead the SEC has said greater oversight could help mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies.
![Iranian health officials have warned that high levels of pollution will exacerbate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which has already caused more deaths in Iran than in any other country in the Middle East [File: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/tehran.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Outages have been compounded by cryptocurrency mining, which uses banks of high-powered computers.
The bounce-back still leaves investors in the dark about what lies ahead for the cryptocurrency.
![Bitcoin's record high of $34,800 came less than three weeks after it crossed $20,000 for the first time, on December 16 [File: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/323810100.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Bitcoin plunged as much as 21 percent over Sunday and Monday – its biggest two-day slide since March.
![In December, bitcoin hit $20,000 for the first time [File: Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-11-24T133928Z_788862449_RC2P9K9XL48K_RTRMADP_3_CRYPTO-CURRENCIES.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The cryptocurrency bitcoin has just hit a record high and is poised to rise even further.
![People around the world have been glued to their screens as scenes of chaos, violence and civil unrest unfolded in the United States Capitol Building [File: John Minchillo/AP Photo]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/AP_21006735186431.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
THE WEEK IN NUMBERS
Capitol chaos, Bitcoin surge, Neil Young and Iraq’s time keeper
We round up the numbers from the week’s biggest economic news stories so you can impress yourself and your friends.
![Digital coins are shattering records in a world awash with fiscal and monetary stimulus, but some observers question the basic integrity of crypto markets [File: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/323613654.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Bitcoin accounts for about two-thirds of cryptocurrency market value, which is now beyond $1 trillion.
![Bitcoin rose as much as nine percent on Thursday to touch a high of $39,223 and has more than quadrupled in the past year, according to a composite of prices compiled by Bloomberg [File: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/367097468.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Bitcoin’s record rally pushes the total market value of cryptocurrencies past $1 trillion for the first time ever.
![More institutions and noted investors, from Paul Tudor Jones to Scott Minerd and Stan Druckenmiller, have either started allocating funds into Bitcoin or have said they are open to doing so [Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2020-05-26T184140Z_999152295_RC2IWG9B30HL_RTRMADP_3_GLOBAL-FOREX.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
World’s largest cryptocurrency hits $35,842 before sliding back below $35,000.
![The COVID-19 pandemic has increased interest in bitcoin, especially among millennials, with about 44 percent of them planning to buy the cryptocurrency in the next five years, according to the Tokenist’s October survey [File: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/367061237.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
International Game Technology Plc received a patent on Tuesday that could let gamblers use bitcoin at slot machines.
Bitcoin fell sharply on Monday as it retreated from a record high of $34,800 reached a day earlier.
![Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continued to soar as investors bet they will become mainstream assets [File: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/367007147.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Viewed as safe havens and hedges against inflation, investors kept snapping up Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
![To bid adieu to the wild year that was 2020, a ball decked out with 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles and 32,256 LED lights dropped at midnight, but the thousands of people who usually pack the area were at home because of COVID-19 [File: Frank Franklin II/AP Photo]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/AP20365719390430.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
THE WEEK IN NUMBERS
A unified Cuban peso, the Times Square ball and cashless Sweden
We round up the numbers to know from the week’s biggest economic news so you can impress yourself and your friends.