Bitcoin Clears $1400 Mark For First Time Recently

Granted, things in the bitcoin market have not been great lately. Attempts at establishing an ETF in the United States have gone poorly at best, with the SEC tossing said attempts out mostly due to issues of security and transparency.

That hasn’t stopped the climb of bitcoin pricing of late, as the cryptocurrency recently cleared an all time record high of $1,400.

On Monday, the price of one single bitcoin briefly hit $1,422.22, based on reports from Coindesk. Though the price dropped somewhat since, it also came back; a bitcoin’s price as of this writing was $1,463.32, putting it on track to eventually break the $1,500 mark for the first time ever.

As to what’s driving the sudden gain, some point to a recent move by the SEC to reconsider one of the failed ETF pushes. Specifically, the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF, which tried to get in on the Bats BZX Exchange, but failed in its effort due to a combined lack of oversight, regulation and protection against possible fraud.

The reconsideration doesn’t seem to be in light of any changed facts, reports note, and many expect that this will simply be rebuffed a second time.

With many exchanges facing service disruptions—several Chinese exchanges have been shut for the last six weeks—many are expecting to see another Mt. Gox style collapse happen at some point. No one knows in which direction, but many still expect it to come.

Bitcoin, at this stage of the game, is little more than a speculation piece. Though there have been some moves made to make this more of an actual currency, like with Overstock.com or with the Japanese government, the overall applications are still comparatively limited.

Some may well think this well change in time, and are planning accordingly, but until bitcoin exchanges can address the biggest problems of security, transparency and fraud prevention, it’s likely bitcoin will never proceed beyond the speculative level.

Bitcoin could be quite a bit more than it is right now, and the ongoing increases in value show I’m not alone in thinking that. First, however, bitcoin’s going to have to get past its problems and deliver a better value for the investor. That’s the only way to make this more than a speculative item.