The surge has also led to fears of a bubble.Some market participants believe the fallout across other financial assets from a potential bursting of the bubble will be limited. "Bitcoin's market capitalisation is currently around $240 billion, which is much smaller, say, than the value of gold outstanding," said Andrew Kenningham, economist at Capital Economics. "If the price of bitcoin fell to zero today, the paper losses would be equivalent to a 0.6 percent fall in U.S. equity prices. As most investors have bought bitcoin at much lower prices, the relevant losses would arguably be smaller. Brent crude inched 37 cents lower to $63.03, drifting away from a recent 2-1/2 year peak of $64.65.Spot gold was barely changed at $1,247.61 an ounce.

Source: The Star December 11, 2017 00:56 UTC