(Reuters) – Digital currency Bitcoin expanded its record-breaking result on Saturday, launching for the first time a surge of more than $ 30,000, with more and more traders and investors betting that it was on its way to becoming a common payment method.
The price of the world’s most popular crypto currency traded up to $ 31,824 early on Saturday, while almost all other markets closed the first weekend in 2021. It was last around 8% at $ 31,743.
Bitcoin has risen more than 300% in 2020, and with the latest leg adding more than 50% since crossing $ 20,000 just two weeks ago.
The blockchain currency has only been around for a decade or so, and by 2020 saw demand from larger U.S. investors grow, attracted by its perceived inflation-hedging characteristics and potential for quick gains, as well as the expectation that it would become a mainstream payments would be method.
Investors have said that the limited supply of bitcoin produced by so-called ‘mine’ computers that confirm transaction blocks by competing to solve mathematical puzzles has moved upward over the past few days.
Some also saw it as a safe haven during the COVID-19 pandemic, similar to gold.
It trades on numerous exchanges, of which Coinbase is the largest, preparing itself to appear on the exchange and becoming the first platform to list on Wall Street.
Several competing cryptocurrencies that use similar blockchain, or electronic ledger technology. Ethereum, the second largest, rose 465% in 2020 and 5.3% on Saturday.
Reporting by Alden Bentley; Edited by Daniel Wallis and Diane Craft