(Reuters) – Bitcoin’s digital currency expanded its record concentration on Saturday, starting the year with a rise of more than $ 30,000 for the first time, with more and more traders and investors opting to become a method of main payment.
The price of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency traded up to $ 31,824 earlier Saturday, with almost all other markets closed during the first weekend of 2021. It rose about 8% to $ 31,743.
Bitcoin advanced more than 300% in 2020 and, with the last stage higher, has added more than 50% since it crossed $ 20,000 just two weeks ago.
The blockchain has only been around for a decade or so, and by 2020 it has seen an increase in demand from larger U.S. investors, attracted by its perceived inflation hedging qualities and its potential for profit. fast, as well as by the expectations that it would become a major payment. method.
Investors said the limited supply of bitcoins produced by so-called “mining” computers that validate blocks of transactions competing to solve mathematical puzzles has helped boost upward movements in recent days.
Some also saw it as a work of refuge during the gold-like COVID-19 pandemic.
It is traded on numerous stock exchanges, the largest of which is Coinbase, which is preparing to go public and become the first such platform to appear on Wall Street.
Multi-competitor cryptocurrencies that use similar blockchain or e-book technology. Ethereum, the second-largest, gained 465% in 2020 and rose 5.3% on Saturday.
Alden Bentley Reports; Edited by Daniel Wallis and Diane Craft