(Reuters) -Bitcoin rose to above $ 60,000 over the weekend to approach record highs, breaking a two-week short range and fueled by talk of limited new stocks against evidence of wider acceptance.
The world’s largest and best-known cryptocurrency reached $ 61,222.22 on Saturday, the highest in almost a month. It was slightly lower on Sunday at $ 59,907 at 0500 GMT.
Bitcoin (BTC) is 116% higher than the year low of $ 27,734 on January 4th. It surpassed the $ 60,000 mark for the first time on March 13, hitting a record $ 61,781.83 on the Bitstamp exchange, just after US President Joe Biden signed his $ 1.9 trillion fiscal stimulus package in the law.
Justin d’Anethan, sales manager of digital asset industry Diginex in Hong Kong, said investors had focused their attention on stock markets and other cryptocurrencies over the past few weeks, leaving Bitcoin at the top level of $ 50,000.
‘It only changed yesterday when we pierced through 60K. ‘With miners not recently selling minted coins, foreign exchange reserves hitting multi-year lows and a steady stream of companies, funds, large and small investors piling up in BTC, we have penetrated,’ he said.
The incredible gains of Bitcoin this year are driven by its acceptance as an investment and means of payment, coupled with the rush of retail cash to stocks, exchange traded funds and other risky assets.
It soared this year when big companies like BNY Mellon, asset manager BlackRock Inc, credit card giant Mastercard Inc, supported cryptocurrencies, while those like Tesla Inc Square Inc and MicroStrategy Inc invested in bitcoin.
Major US banks like Morgan Stanley also want to give wealth management clients access to bitcoin funds.
Reporting by Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru and Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Edited by William Mallard