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Bitcoin has faced a tumultuous year so far, reaching highs of $14,112 (£10,745) in January before plummeting to around $6,000 (£4560.99) in August. This decline means the cryptocurrency has lost over half of its value since the beginning of 2018. The currency has risen back up from its lows, and is remaining somewhat steady around $6,400 (£4,862.88). Below are live updates of pricing and latest industry opinions, all times in BST.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 7.53pm update: Is Amazon Cloud's blockchain quicker than Bitcoin? CSIRO, Australia’s National Science Agency, in partnership with Sydney University have undertaken an experiment using Amazon Cloud to achieve a blockchain transaction speed of 30,000 transactions per second. Bitcoin can currently settle around 8 transactions per second and Ethereum can achieve around 15 transactions per second, making this discovery significant. 6.32pm update: Bitcoin's latest price Bitcoin is currently trading at at $6,523.25 (£4,949.84), 1.38 percent higher than today’s opening price of $6,434.65 (£4,882.61). This week's high was $6,793.70 (£5,155.74) on Saturday, September 22. 5.20pm update: What are Bitcoin ETFs? An ETF or exchange-traded fund is a marketable security that tracks an index, a commodity, bonds, or a basket of assets like an index fund. Unlike mutual funds, an ETF trades like a common stock on a stock exchange. Blockchain ETFs benefits include - pooled investments in baskets of stocks like that of a mutual fund, and real-time trading with tick-by-tick price changes like that of stock. However, due to the unregulated nature of Bitcoin, ETFs are yet to be approved for BTC. 4.40pm update: Latest prices for cryptocurrencies Bitcoin - $6,546.43 (£4,968.71) XRP - $0.5447 - (£0.41) Ethereum - $221.75 (£168.31) Bitcoin Cash - $518.04 (£393.19) EOS - $5.66 (£4.30) Litecoin - $58.67 (£44.53) 3.42pm update: Cryptojacking grew by a staggering 86percent in the second quarter of 2018 Cryptocurrency mining malware is continuing to surge unabated. According to McAfee Labs, in the second quarter of this year cryptocurrency mining malware attacks increased by 86percent. The primary target of cryptocurrency mining malware has continued to be personal computers, however, cryptojackers are more and more setting their sights on devices such as smartphones and other gadgets with internet connection.

2.31pm update: Ripple briefly passes Ethereum's market cap for the second time in a week Ripple (XRP) briefly surpassed the market cap of Ethereum (ETH) for the second time in a week today, Wednesday, September 26. This again temporarily made XRP become the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Data from CoinMarketCap shows that XRP is now again ranked third with gains of 22 percent over a 24 hour period, with ETH in the second highest spot for market cap with gains around 3 percent at the time of writing. 1.54pm update: Latest cryptocurrency prices Bitcoin - $6,508.64 (£4,944.00) Ethereum - $217.38 (£165.12) Bitcoin Cash - $446.85 (£339.43) Litcoin - $57.69 (£43.82) XRP - $0.5509 (£0.42)

Bitcoin has seen both lows and highs this year, but will it go back up?

1.16pm update: United States Cryptocurrency leaders plead with Congress for regulation Yesterday leaders from the cryptocurrency industry, Wall Street and venture capital firms met lawmakers in Washington, United States. These leaders begged for Congress for clarity around existing regulations. Mike Lempres, chief legal and risk officer at San Francisco-based Coinbase said, "We all want a fair and orderly markets, we want all the same things regulators do. "It doesn't have to be done in the same way it was done in the past, and we need to be open to that." 12.45pm update: Current price of Bitcoin Price at 12.45pm - $6,499.70 (£4,942.53) Today’s high - $6,507.57 (£4,948.52) Today’s low - $6,381.61 (£4,852.74)

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 9.09pm: Bitcoin added to words accepted on Scrabble Bitcoin has been added to the accepted words that can be used in the popular board game Scrabble. According to the New York Times, dictionary standard setter Merriam-Webster has added more than 300 new word to a list which can be used on Scrabble. The word Bitcoin joins commonly-used pop culture terminology bestie, ew, arancini, twerk and more than 295 others. Emily Brewster, associate editor and Lexicographer at Merriam-Webster said Bitcoin and the other new words will be “especially exciting to people to play regularly” and make the game feel “anew.” The cryptocurrency was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2016. 7.53pm update: Bitcoin latest price update At 7.53pm Bitcoin was trading at $6352.64 (£4,818.96). This is a decline from today's high of $6,581.51 (£4,991.42) by more than 3.5 percent.

JP Morgan are pioneering a blockchain payment trial

7.24pm update: A blockchain payment trial by JP Morgan has attracted 75 banks A blockchain payment trial pioneered by JP Morgan in collaboration with Australia's ANZ and the Royal Bank of Canada has attracted 75 banks to the testing phase according to the Financial Times. The payments platform Interbank Information Network (IIN) has been in the testing phase for 11 months. The banks that have signed up for IIN include Societe Generale and Santander among others. Jason Goldberg, banks analyst at JP Morgan said, "Blockchain is a way to keep more of that [business] in-house.”

6.57pm update: Latest price check on the largest cryptocurrencies Bitcoin - $6,380.12 (£4847.10) Ethereum - $210.45 (£159.88) Bitcoin Cash - $431.67 (£327.95) Litecoin - $55.88 (£42.45) XRP - £0.4544 (£0.35) 6.34pm update: Google to resume cryptocurrency advertising in October The search engine have agreed to allow cryptocurrencies to once more advertise on Google. Starting next month, regulated crypto exchanges will be allowed to purchase ads in the US and Japan. The ban on advertising crypto came in March during a spate of high-profile initial coin offerings alongside other cryptocurrency activity which caused issues in identifying between fraudulent or legitimate ventures.

Bitcoin is beginning to go mainstream - but will confidence in the crypto increase?

6.09pm update: Bitcoin heads towards mainstream acceptance Bitcoin has been added to the Merriam-Webster Scrabble dictionary, many people's go-to source for Scrabble word approval. Public awareness of the cryptocurrency has added to the soaring prices we have seen at the beginning of this year. 5.32pm update: Could Bitcoin reach $40,000 by the end of 2018? These industry experts think so Chris Kline, the Chief Operations Officer of BitcoinIRA believes alongside billionaire investor Marc Lasry that BTC prices will continue to climb and could reach $40,000 (£30,379.60) by the end of 2018. One reason for such an increase would be down to the Bitcoin ETF proposal. Bitcoin ETFs can open the Bitcoin market wider making it more accessible to investors Mr Kline told Forbes, “Launching a bitcoin ETF would, to me, be a crucial advancement in the cryptocurrency sector, as it will make digital currencies more accessible to a wide range of people who might currently deem them too volatile or high-risk.”