The world’s number 1 cryptocurrency reached a record high on Friday, driving it to a market value of more than $ 1 trillion for the first time ever.
A single bitcoin BTCUSD,
according to data from research firm CoinMarketCap.com, total market capitalization briefly went up to $ 1,002,547,798,785, a record $ 53,910.44, based on prices tracked by CoinDesk.
via CoinMarketCap.com
Bitcoin last rose 4% on Friday to around $ 53,734 and has risen more than 85% since the beginning of 2021. In comparison, gold prices GC00,
with which bitcoin often competes for investment dollars, has fallen by almost 6% so far this year.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index SPX,
looking at an annual profit of 4.5%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
is 3.3% higher and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP,
look at a profit so far in the year of more than 8%.
“Bitcoin price reaching $ 1 billion is the most exciting news of this year,” AvaTrade chief market analyst Naeem Aslam wrote in an email note. “It’s been a long time coming and the fact is that we’re only 10 times over to throw the gold market capitalization on its head,” he said.
The rise of the digital asset created just 12 years ago by a person or persons known as Satoshi Nakamoto is attributed to increasing institutional interest in bitcoin and other alternative cryptographically backed assets.
The fervor for bitcoins got a fresh spark earlier this month when Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. TSLA,
said they acquired $ 1.5 billion in bitcoins in January and that they could accept the world’s largest digital asset for payment in the future.
Late on Thursday, Musk further tweeted his reason for exposing bitcoins, describing the decision as “simply a less stupid form of liquidity than cash is adventurous enough for an S & P500 company.”
Other institutions, including PayPal Holdings Inc., PYPL, which opened its cryptocurrency platform to all U.S. customers in November after a closer rollout, have helped sharply increase bitcoin prices in recent weeks and months.
And several notable Wall Street investors, including Stanley Druckenmiller and Paul Tudor Jones, have seized bitcoin. Well-known investor Bill Miller, founder of Miller Value Partners, confirmed in a letter to clients published on the firm’s website earlier this month that he has his positive outlook on bitcoin.
One point that should be noted is that despite the parabolic shift in bitcoins lately, its dominance, its share in the market value compared to other alternative digital assets, is only about 60%, compared to a recent high of about 70% the beginning of the year.
This may indicate that other cryptos, such as Ether ETHUSD,
on the ethereum blockchain, is also attracting a lot of interest among buyers along with bitcoin.