BITCOIN suffered a day of wild swings Friday, tumbling more than 30 percent for its biggest reverse of the year before a similarly steep rally.

The frantic trading brought one cryptocurrency exchange to a standstill as investors reacted to warnings from global regulators and concerns about security in the nascent market.

The cryptocurrency, whose meteoric rise has been labeled a bubble by many critics, fell as much as 31.8 percent from its Thursday peak to US$10,775 per coin, before climbing more than 34 percent to US$14,400 by Friday afternoon in New York.

Bitcoin reached a peak of US$19,666 on December 17. Friday’s lurch downwards was the biggest since the currency began its ascent from US$1,000 at the start of this year.

In a sign of the tumult, Coinbase, the most popular U.S. exchange, “temporarily disabled” buying and selling midway through the trading day, citing “high traffic,” It warned customers trying to withdraw funds into accounts denominated in euros to expect delays of up to 10 days owing to the “extremely high volume of transactions.” (SD-Agencies)