There is a practice in the bitcoin mining industry that is affecting prices on public exchanges, impacting commerce across the entire cryptocurrency economy. This is the practice of over the counter liquidity provision. In layman's terms, this is when a broker offers large amounts of USD or other fiat for equally large amounts of bitcoin.

Chances are that you may be already aware of the fact that over the last 17 months, the value of bitcoin has radically decreased. While many may believe that this represents the death of the cryptocurrency, the truth is quite the contrary.

Surprising news from the realm of Bitcoin, as the world-loved digital currency has just managed to reach its highest level in more than two years.

If you’re not yet aware, the cryptocurrency has managed to break the $700 barrier, and is valued at $709 at the time of writing. This is bitcoin’s highest value since February 2014, thus showcasing its true potential as more and more people decide to switch to it. In fact, during the last month alone, the value of bitcoin has increased by over 51%.

During the last couple of weeks, bitcoin has once again proven that it remains a volatile digital currency which can be influenced by various world events. China’s influence on the digital currency is also well-known throughout the market, and in just 24 hours, the country has managed to make the value of the currency both grow, and decrease.

To put things better into perspective, China has been making numerous headlines due to the loss in their forex reserves, thus reaching a six-year low recently. Currently, the Asian country only has around $3 trillion in liquid forex assets, which is considerably low for a country as big as China, which also has an over-heated economy. Additionally, the capital outflow restrictions placed by the government are also not helping the economy either.

During the last couple of months, the value of bitcoin has both increased and decreased substantially, and recently, it has managed to reach an all-new all-time high, which is great news for digital currency enthusiasts from all around the world.

Because of this volatility, most people who have ever held bitcoin, were affected by the value increases and decreases. Common sense tells people to sell the currency when its value is high, to make a profit, and buy the digital currency when the value is low. Regardless of this aspect, most people do the complete opposite, because it is often hard to predict how the value of the digital currency will change over the next couple of days. Therefore, people who have already joined, or are considering the idea of joining the bitcoin train, need to be well-educated on the best practices that need to be followed, to help reduce losses attributed to the currency’s volatility.

If you’ve been following recent digital currency news, then chances are that you have heard about Bitcoin’s truly massive value increase, during the last couple of days. In fact, the digital currency has managed to hit a new record high, on Wednesday, with trading prices situated over $2,400.

The reasons behind this massive growth are numerous indeed, yet there are some which can be directly linked to bitcoin’s new staggering value. With this in mind, not long ago, the Digital Currency Group announced that they have reached consensus with 50 other companies, and have support from 83% of the miners on the network, to lower the barrier meant for the activation of the Segregated Witness project, but also that a hard fork will finally take place, meant to increase the bitcoin block size to a total of 2MB, from the current 1MB. In the long run, this will likely lead to numerous benefits.

The last couple of weeks have once again proven that bitcoin remains a strong, yet volatile digital currency, due to the numerous changes in value. To put things better into perspective, bitcoin finally ended up staging another rally over the end of the week, thus hitting a one-month high.

This was quite surprising judging by the fact that economic analysts have been warning against another negative volatility event. At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading at $4,625, which is the highest level that it has reached since the 8th of October. This is significantly better when compared to the value that it has a couple of weeks ago, when the digital currency ended up declining a bit below the $3,000 mark.