⸺ Obituary · August 15, 2017 ⸺
“A Bitcoin Is Worth $4,000; Why You Probably Should Not Own One”
— Forbes, Adam Hartung
“This is why almost none of us should own Bitcoins. Bitcoin value has multiple weaknesses. Someone could hack the blockchain, create more Bitcoins and manipulate the value or sell the illegitimate Bitcoins and abscond with the buyers’ dollars. Or groups of users can place large buys and sells of Bitcoins, manipulating their value, because there are no controls. Or Bitcoin users could simply start using other crypto-currencies or traditional government-issued currencies and the market could fold completely, making Bitcoins worthless, as has happened to other crypto-currencies. Any one, or all, of these things could happen at any moment.”
Price at death
$4,204
Today
$73,565
Resurrection
×17.5
On 2017-08-15, Adam Hartung (Columnist, Forbes) declared Bitcoin dead via Forbes. Bitcoin was trading at ~$4,204 at the time. The call joins the growing canon of premature obituaries.
The declaration was catalogued on August 15, 2017, when one Bitcoin traded for approximately $4,204. Since then, Bitcoin has appreciated by 17.5× relative to the price on the day Forbes pronounced it finished.