Economics of bitcoin

Bulgaria owns bitcoins worth more than 3 billion euros. An amount through which the country would be able to repay a large part of its debts. However, this poses risks - because it could lead to a collapse of bitcoin, say a number of media quoted by Deutsche Welle.

Bulgarian police have seized enough Bitcoins to pay off a fifth of the country's national debt after the value surged by 600% in half a year, according to Daily Mail.

Officers are said to have confiscated hundreds of thousands of units of the virtual currency worth $500million from an organised crime gang in May.

Bitcoin surged past $18,000 after it began trading on its first major global exchange on Dec. 10, the latest in a series of highs that have excited some investors while leaving others nervous of a bubble.

The rate of cryptocurrency bitcoin increased by more than 23%, and for the first time in the history of auctions the threshold of 18 thousand dollars was passed, according to data from the auctions on the electronic exchange Coinmarketcap.

Bitcoin rocketed to a lifetime high well above $16,000 on Thursday after climbing some 67 percent over one week, intensifying the debate about whether the cryptocurrency is in a bubble about to burst.

This week the international business school, Varna University of Management (VUM), located in Bulgaria, has announced that ten applicants for the school's software engineering bachelor's program will earn bitcoin-based scholarships. Students will be able to choose to receive the scholarship fund for 1000 EUR in the equivalent amount of bitcoins.

A few years ago, the twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss brought a lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg and accused him of stealing the idea of ​​creating the Facebook social network. The Winklevoss brothers received USD 66 million settlement from this case.

Bitcoin is a speculative asset and people who invest in it do so at their own risk, the Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned on Dec. 1 after recent volatile trading.

Bitcoin and other digital currencies have failed to stay at record highs on Thursday. The market has seen a correction with digital coins falling from 17 to 30 percent.

The leader bitcoin plunged to $9,300, losing about $2,000 from record highs. Ethereum lost more than 20 percent and was trading at just above $400.

For an asset often named in tandem with drug trafficking and the dark web just a few years ago, it's hard to imagine that optimism surrounding Bitcoin's potential legitimacy could take the asset to more than $11,000 in value as of Wednesday, writes Time.com