Bitcoin surpasses $50,000 for the first time
Bitcoin rose above $50,000 for the first time Tuesday as corporate heavyweights increasingly back the world’s most popular virtual currency.
It has risen around 72pc so far this year. Most of the gains came after electric carmaker Tesla said it had bought $1.5 billion in bitcoin.
Bitcoin has been on a rise since March last year when it stood at $5,000. PayPal said it would allow account holders to use cryptocurrency.
But Tesla was only the latest in a string of large investments that have vaulted bitcoin from the fringes of finance to company balance sheets and Wall Street dealing desks, as United States firms and traditional money managers have started to buy a lot of it.
In a further boost, Tesla unveiled plans to accept the cryptocurrency from customers buying its vehicles.
Mastercard plus US financial giant BNY Mellon have meanwhile agreed to accept digital currencies as payments.
Central bankers and regulators, particularly in China, are also starting to embrace issuing their own digital currencies for everyday use.
“Digital currencies, it seems clear to us, are going to be an increasing part of financial architecture very broadly and potentially portfolios moving forward,” Ben Powell, APAC chief investment strategist at BlackRock’s Investment Institute said.
“There isn’t just news in the US with the bitcoin situation, but in China we’ve got a rollout of China’s digital currency with so-called ‘red packets’.”
Bitcoin hit the headlines in 2017. It valued less than $1,000 in January to almost $20,000 in December of the same year.
