Bitcoin’s Price Rebounds Past $11K As Its User Fees Slide to Lowest Level in Five Months

Capping an eventful week for cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is now trading above $11,000 for the first time in three weeks. Even more important, the fees its users must pay when they spend Bitcoin—which had soared into the stratosphere in recent months— have crashed back to earth, according to data available Monday morning from Bitinfocharts.com.

All this follows a week in which Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, released news that it had set up an acceptance platform called Coinbase Commerce for merchants that want to take Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, or Litecoin payments. On top of that, the San Francisco-based exchange found itself fielding a wave of complaints about duplicate charges on the accounts of customers who had used credit cards to buy cryptocurrencies.

Coinbase on Friday posted a notice on its blog announcing that it was not at fault in the overcharges and that Visa Inc. and Coinbase’s merchant processor, Atlanta-based Worldpay Inc., had by then reversed “all” duplicate transactions. Coinbase did not add further details, but early indications were that the duplicate charges, which apparently began appearing mid-week, were related to a decision by banks, at Visa’s prompting, to reclassify crypto purchases as cash advances. The new transactions apparently hit customers’ accounts before the original purchases could be refunded.

All this aside, the good news for Bitcoin investors is that the price has rebounded sharply over the last two weeks from a low near $6,000. Perhaps more important, the median fee to spend the digital currency has fallen to $1.08, its lowest level in five months, according to Bitinfocharts.com. This fee, which is a levy paid to the so-called miners that develop new coins, peaked at $34 just before Christmas, prompting merchants like online-game seller Valve Corp. and e-commerce processor Stripe Inc. in the following weeks to stop accepting the digital currency. Stripe’s decision takes effect in April.

The question now is whether Bitcoin’s fees, which have proven to be nearly as volatile as its price, can stay in their current range.