Bitcoin price LIVE: BTC to 'die'

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8.00am MORNING HEADLINES Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of all things cryptocurrency, including price, regulation, innovation and financial crime. Bitcoin has slumped again overnight, falling to $6,211 at the time of press with ethereum at $426 and ripple down at $0.43. Following on from Noah Smith at Bloomberg outlining the three most-likely scenarios for bitcoin in the years ahead, Joseph Carson, chief security scientist at Thycotic told Express.co.uk that the most pessimistic of the three scenarios is the most likely. The expert says that bitcoin will fail as mining costs increase and prices fall to just $43.

The most likely scenario is that bitcoin will die; my current valuation of bitcoin is approximately US $43 as opposed to the hyped and manipulated valuation. Joseph Carson, chief Thycotic

Just to recap, Mr Smith predicted that bitcoin will take one of three paths: At number one Mr Smith says bitcoin will "triumph" replacing all other fiat currencies as the economy’s "main unit of exchange". He said: "People buy pizzas, finance their mortgages and pay their rent in bitcoin. At number two he says that bitcoin becomes like "gold". Mr Smith says that continuity crumbles on with fiat currency remaining the main unit of exchange everywhere except in a few "extremely dysfunctional economies like Venezuela’s". However, in this scenario "bitcoin’s market capitalisation remains substantial, and it rises in value over time, occasionally experiencing large bubbles and crashes." Number three is the worst case scenario when bitcoin goes "bust" and BTC as we know it is "abandoned, crashing relative to the dollar and never being useful as a payment method for daily necessities."

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Choosing from the three possible paths for BTC in the years ahead, Mr Carson told Express.co.uk: "The most likely scenario is that bitcoin will die; my current valuation of bitcoin is approximately US $43 as opposed to the hyped and manipulated valuation. "Unless Bitcoin is able to become more efficient at mining, and more stable overall, it is likely to die. These higher mining costs and the fact that more retailers are failing to accept bitcoin as payment - as they are unable to convert it as it is too expensive - will mean the end of it. Got something to add? Send your reaction / thoughts / analysis / price predictions over to @DavidGDawkins. Updates below throughout the day....

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8.52am - In the red Bitcoin has shed $207 on the day so far as the misery continues. 9.31am - 'Clipboard hijackers' Paolo Passeri, Cyber Intelligence Principal at Netskope got in touch to give his thoughts on the recent hack at MyEtherWallet. He said: "Yesterday the open source crypto wallet service, MyEtherWallet, was hacked by malicious actors allegedly from Russia. The sustained attack targeted the Chrome extension of Hola VPN, a free VPN service popular among MyEtherWallet users. "The company believes that any users that accessed the service using Hola during the attack may have fallen victim and have urged affected users to transfer their funds.” "Attackers have zeroed in on users, recognising that they are often the weak link in the security chain. The reality is that accessing a wallet to transfer crypto currencies is equivalent to dealing with a bank in the real world. The difference is that in the world of crypto wallets the process works using an open system, the internet, which is susceptible to attacks and hijacking.” The cyber intelligence expert warns that this is not the only instance where hackers have targeted internet users. "Clipboard hijackers" are an emerging new family of crypto stealing malware. He said: "Clipboard hijacking happens when an attacker implants a malware in the victim’s computer that is able to monitor the Windows clipboard of a victim, waiting to intercept cryptocurrency transactions and divert funds to an account they control. "Recently a sample of a cryptocurrency hijacker was found to be capable of monitoring 2.3 million bitcoin addresses.”

10.22am - Fortnite beats bitcoin BITCOIN is at risk of losing its position as the most talked-about technology by business brains around the world after it was revealed that top executives are more likely to mention “Fortnite” than “bitcoin” while discussing their financial performance. According to analysis by business news site MarketWatch of transcripts collected by FactSet, corporate executives discussing their financial performance on their quarterly earnings calls used “Fortnite” a total of 54 times during the past earnings season. That topped the 45 times executives mentioned “bitcoin” or other cryptocurrencies in those calls.

Bitcoin price LIVE: BTC has lost over $200

11.49am - Bitcoin to become digital 'gold' On Bloomberg's three scenarios for bitcoin over the years ahead, Samuel Leach, bitcoin millionaire and founder of Yield Coin claims that BTC will take the middle path. He said: "The most likely of these outcomes is that Bitcoin will run alongside fiat much like gold. I cannot see us getting rid of fiat currencies – these transitions take so much time, particularly when the adoption rate of such technologies is so low amongst the 60+ age group. I see crypto being used the most by younger generations who want full control of their money. I can see bitcoin and other alternative coins existing in their own sphere – mostly because of their volatility. There are no currencies that experience such volatility. The Turkish Lira is volatile, moving between 4-6 to the GBP but that movement is nothing like bitcoin, which can range from $5,500 – $20,000. "It would be too dangerous for fiat currencies to be replaced by bitcoin in the coming years – imagine if house prices changed by 200-400 percent in a matter of months because they depended on the price of bitcoin – it just isn’t feasible." Mr Leach says that bitcoin rose when the Greek banks didn’t pay out users at the cash point. and it shows that cryptocurrencies are valued in times of unrest or mistrust in the government. He adds that in 2025, 5 percent of all transactions within the UK could be done via cryptocurrencies.

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2.10pm - Fortnite is all the talk Bitcoin is at risk of losing its position as the most talked-about technology by business brains around the world after it was revealed that top executives are more likely to mention “Fortnite” than “bitcoin” while discussing their financial performance. According to analysis by business news site MarketWatch of transcripts collected by FactSet, corporate executives discussing their financial performance on their quarterly earnings calls used “Fortnite” a total of 54 times during the past earnings season. That topped the 45 times executives mentioned “bitcoin” or other cryptocurrencies in those calls. READ MORE: Bitcoin beaten by Fortnite Battle Royale in EPIC battle of business buzzwords

Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winner