HOW THE BITCOIN BUBBLE BURST

ARGO Blockchain, the first bitcoin firm to be listed on the London Stock Exchange, is a symbol of the cryptocurrency bubble. What seemed like a one-way bet to riches has proved a disaster.

As the price of bitcoin hit its peak at Christmas 2017, those who owned this much hyped new currency wanted to cash in on its success and sell out.

Only multi-millionaires could afford not to, though many who genuinely believed this to be the future of finance also held on. But market analysts noted that it was being traded like the nascent asset class it was, not like the new currency some claimed it would be.

The price fell, as the putative entrant to the mainstream financial system began to look like the Wild West all over again. In particular, criminals liked the fact that transactions in bitcoins are untraceable.

Even Goldman Sachs, the American investment bank known as the vampire squid for never missing a chance to make a buck, ditched a plan to launch a cryptocurrency trading desk. Perhaps Goldman’s bankers saw the writing on the wall.