Bitcoin price today: After crashing to low of $3,447.58, currency soars close to $4,000

Bitcoin and other top cryptocurrencies gained on Monday after witnessing a huge fall over the last week. Bitcoin on Monday was trading 5.54 percent higher to a price of $3,982.80 just after 7 am ET. The price of Bitcoin fell to as low as as low as $3,447.58 on Sunday. 

However, Bitcoin, the most popular virtual currency, had climbed back above $4,000 late Sunday, according to a CNBC report. The virtual currency reached an all-time high close to $20,000 in December 2017. However, the gain did not last long. The virtual currency has lost 80 percent of its value from its peak price. Other virtual currencies like XRP and ether are also down about 90 percent from their record highs.

Bitcoin suddenly fell below $6,000 on November 14.  Analysts attributes concerns including the prospect of increased regulatory scrutiny and the virtual currency's falling “hash rate”, the rate at which a bitcoin “miner” solves complex mathematical problems to add a transaction, are the reason behind the fall.

“Bitcoin has been correlated to its hash rate and with it now falling, so is the price,” CNBC quoted as saying Charles Hayter, the chief executive of digital currency comparison site CryptoCompare.

People are no longer making a profit from mining bitcoin as the cost of mining rigs clashing with falling cryptocurrency prices, showd data compiled by Susquehanna semiconductor analyst Christopher Rolland earlier this month.

Bitcoin is facing various regulatory hurdles over question of its validity. In India, there is no legal framework to deal with cryptocurrencies yet. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the RBI had earlier warned against getting into this virtual currency.