@@ -1,1 +1,1 @@ - +<br>By Tom Wilson<br> <br>LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) - If you're a bitcoin investor, your nerves may have taken quite a pounding in 2021.<br> <br>The cryptocurrency's journey towards the investment and commercial mainstream has gathered pace, with major financial firms and companies embracing the emerging asset.<br> <br>Such interest helped push it to a record high just shy of $65,000 in April.<br>Yet in typically capricious fashion, it has since slumped by almost half.<br> <br>At the halfway point of the year, the original and biggest cryptocurrency is up around 20% year-to-date. Here are some charts that tell the story of bitcoin's year so far.<br> <br>1/STILL VOLATILE<br> <br>Wild price swings have been a defining feature of bitcoin throughout its near 13-year life.<br><br>The first half of 2021 has been no different, despite hopes that greater liquidity in markets and stronger infrastructure would dampen swings.<br> <br>Bitcoin more than doubled from the start of the year to its all-time high of $64,895 hit in mid-April, before slumping by over half in just five weeks as regulators across the world - especially China - cracked down on cryptocurrencies.<br> <br>In May alone bitcoin lost 35%, in its worst month since 2018.<br><br>Last week it fell under $30,000 for the first time since January, briefly wiping out its year-to-date gains.<br> <br>Many larger investors also left the bitcoin market after prices spiked in the first quarter, with some shifting to gold, according to JP Morgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou.<br> <br>"What we found out in the second quarter was that actually demand for bitcoin is price sensitive," he said.<br>"Some institutional investors started getting out of bitcoin in April ... they thought bitcoin prices were too high relative to gold."<br> <br>2/BITCOINS [http://forexbinaryoption.pw/ binary options or forex market] ALTCOINS?<br> <br>Bitcoin has attracted the lion's share of the headlines so far this year. Yet many of its smaller digital currency rivals - known as the altcoins - have posted bigger gains.<br> <br>Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, has nearly trebled so far this year, bolstered by a surge in the so-called decentralized finance sector.<br><br>"DeFi" often uses its underlying blockchain technology to offer financial services without traditional middlemen such as banks.<br> <br>Signs that the ethereum blockchain is gaining traction with mainstream financial firms has also fueled gains.<br> <br>XRP, the seventh-largest coin, has gained a similar amount.<br><br>Other once-obscure coins such as dogecoin, started in 2013 as a joke, [http://forexbinaryoption.pw/ the best binary options automated software] have also far outpaced bitcoin, with investors drawn to the prospect of quick gains. Dogecoin is up over 5,000% so far this year.<br> <br>3/OUTPACED BY MEME STOCKS<br> <br>Retail investors have embraced bitcoin this year, attracted by narratives that it can act as a hedge against inflation and as a future payment method.<br> <br>Also driving gains has been a perception that it is a vehicle for [http://forexbinaryoption.pw/ forexbinaryoption.pw] quick gains - a perceived quality shared by another 2021 financial market phenomenon: "meme" stocks, whose value is propelled by social-media buzz.<br> <br>GameStop Corp and AMC Entertainment Holdings , two of the leading meme stocks, soared in the first quarter along with bitcoin, fueled by retail investors with spare cash and free time because of coronavirus stimulus lockdowns.<br> <br>Yet the assets have since decoupled, with bitcoin's gains for the year so far outpaced by GameStop - up more than 1,000% - and AMC Entertainment, which has surged over 2,500%.<br> <br>"It's just an extension of free money just going crazy and so I think that has somewhat you can see that rippling over into cryptocurrencies," said Joel Kruger, a strategist at crypto exchange LMAX Digital.<br> <br>(Reporting by Tom Wilson; Editing by Pravin Char)<br>