ONLINE cryptocurrency Bitcoin has seen a surge in value in recent months, seeing it’s value peak in January.
In November 2017, a Bradford estate agents became the first UK company outside London to list a property for sale for Bitcoin, but what would it be worth now, and what could you get for the same price in 2021?
The value of Bitcoin peaked in January, with one Bitcoin worth just shy of £30,000, a record high, triggering a scramble to sell and profit off the exchange rate.
There was a story from Newport in South Wales, where James Howells has been digging through a landfill site to find a hard drive he threw away in 2013 which contained 7,500 Bitcoins – now worth almost £200 million.
In Bradford in 2017, Little Germany-based Citywide Investors put a two-bed terraced house up for sale in east Leeds for 10 Bitcoins at the request of its tech-savvy owner at the time, who was a keen crypto-currency trader.
At the time, this was worth around £60,000, but if Bitcoin users had kept hold of their crypto-cash a bit longer they would now be able to buy something larger than the house that was for sale in Glensdale Street.
Ten Bitcoins are now worth more than £260,000, which would be able to buy a much grander property than the back-to-back terraces of East End Park, with a number of impressive new-builds and detached properties available for this price in Bradford.
If the property was bought up, and the owner looked to sell up again in Bitcoin, they would be facing a huge loss as now the property would only fetch 2.5 Bitcoins, a huge loss.
Bitcoin has attracted controversy in the past due to its links with cyber-crime and the sheer amount of energy needed to create it, and it’s fluctuating value makes it a risky investment.