People Are Taking Out Mortgages To Buy Bitcoin

The cryptocurrency mania is getting out of hand. People are now actually taking out mortgages and opening up credit lines to buy Bitcoin.

The president of the North American Securities Administrators Association, Joseph Borg, told CNBC that people are so mesmerized by the unbelievable rhythm with which Bitcoin has grown this year that they are borrowing money to buy… digital money. “We’ve seen mortgages being taken out to buy bitcoin. … People do credit cards, equity lines”, says Borg.

Indeed, in just one year, Bitcoin has gone from being value at $1000 per coin to $16,831 (at the time of writing)! “This is not something a guy who’s making $100,000 a year, who’s got a mortgage and two kids in college ought to be invested in”, he added.

Yet, it’s hard to resist the temptation of becoming rich overnight, so easily. Cryptocurrency is here to stay, although there are still no international regulations set in stone. Other risks are posed by cyberattacks that can leave you penniless before you blink. Marketplace NiceHash is proof of that; hackers stole 4,700 bitcoins from them just this summer.

That’s not to say cryptocurrency spin-offs aren’t thriving. The game CryptoKitties drew in over $1.3M in transactions over the Ethereum blockchain a couple of weeks ago.