Bitcoin exchange Coinbase watched its iOS app surge to the top of the free apps chart in Apple's App Store yesterday, amid a speculative frenzy surrounding the blockchain cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin prices on Coinbase's GDAX exchange flew past $16,000 to almost $20,000 in around 90 minutes on Thursday, reported Bloomberg, extending its record-breaking run and causing the software to crash and the service's website to go down intermittently in the process. The digital currency fluctuated during a turbulent Asian session, before falling back to about $16,000.

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The rise and rise of bitcoin has brought it into the mainstream in the last few weeks, but many observers are warning that the cryptocurrency could be a bubble. Investors have also been reminded of the dangers of hackers, after bitcoin mining marketplace NiceHash lost $64 million in BTC following a "sophisticated and professional attack".

Apple has had its own problems with cryptocurrencies in the past. In August 2016, the tech giant had to remove several fake bitcoin wallets from the App Store after users of the digital currency were scammed out of thousands of dollars.

For anyone interested in observing the hourly fluctuations of bitcoin while maintaining a safe distance, free app CoinHub offers real-time quotes and up-to-date cryptocurrency news all within an impressive-looking dark-themed dashboard. [Direct Link]

Tag: Bitcoin

Top Rated Comments

blackcrayon Avatar
blackcrayon
96 months ago
Just last month I tried to download two completely different MacOS Bitcoin applications from macupdate.com and after the DMG files downloaded my antivirus gave me an alert both times that the files were infected and it deleted the downloads.
If the MacOS community files are infected you can imagine how much more the Windows community.
It's only a matter of time that some clever hacker infects an Apple App Store and iOS App Store with some type of root crack.
Still going to be really difficult on iOS. Almost akin to a userland instant jailbreak. Then again, there would be monetary incentive that the current jailbreak teams might not have...

The ugliness of unregulated free market.
But the beauty of potentially world-changing disruptive technology. It's going to have a rough start but let's see where we are in five years.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Krayzkat Avatar
Krayzkat
96 months ago

It's only a matter of time that some clever hacker infects an Apple App Store and iOS App Store with some type of root crack.
like entering a blank password?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
960design Avatar
960design
96 months ago
like entering a blank password?
Too soon.... just, too soon.
[doublepost=1512736207][/doublepost]
The ugliness of unregulated free market.
Possibly the money of the future world.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
haruhiko Avatar
haruhiko
96 months ago
The ugliness of unregulated free market.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gnipgnop Avatar
gnipgnop
96 months ago
It's not currency. It's a speculative commodity, thus the crazy ups and downs and value that has no real connection to the economy as a whole.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mariusignorello Avatar
mariusignorello
96 months ago
Right now Bitcoin is in the stage where the visionaries will take action (and profit :)) and the naysayers will shrug it off and worry about bugs (therefore getting the short end of the stick by choice).

Like a startup, there is risk. The ones who want to make it big know how to mitigate the risk.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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