The cryptocurrency everyone is talking about has surpassed a new milestone as it pushes past $US61,000 ($A78,000) a coin for the first time.
As bitcoin passed the unprecedented mark for the first time on Saturday, some analysts and investors were excited the digital coin could edge towards $US70,000 ($A90,000).
Bitcoin has tripled in value since the start of the year – it was worth $US20,000 ($A26,000) in December – as corporate heavyweights gave the cryptocurrency more attention.
Last month, Elon Musk flipped the coin on its head when his company Tesla invested a massive $US1.5 billion in the digital currency.
Twitter’s head Jack Dorsey and rapper Jay-Z added to the frenzy, saying they’re creating a fund aimed at making Bitcoin “the internet’s currency”.
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Other celebrities have also expressed public support for cryptocurrency, including actors Lindsay Lohan and Maisie Williams and musician Gene Simmons.
Elon Musk is one of the cryptocurrency’s most famous fans, although he has previously warned people not to invest their life savings in cryptocurrencies, echoing sentiments of financial watchdogs cautioning that people risk losing all their money.
“There’s a good chance that crypto is the future currency of Earth, and it’s like … which one’s it going to be? Maybe it’ll be multiple,” Mr Musk previously said.
Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, one of the largest projects in the blockchain industry, toldFox News that Tesla’s move into the cryptocurrency was bringing the digital coin into the mainstream.
“With the world’s richest man putting bitcoin on Tesla’s balance sheet, I think that institutions will have much more publicly acceptable justification to allocate to bitcoin,” Mr Nazarov said.
“You have to understand, with this move, anyone who owns Tesla shares just received exposure to bitcoin. The normalisation of bitcoin that is taking place right now cannot be understated.”
At the start of 2017, Bitcoin was sitting at around $US1000 ($A1300) a coin and by the end of the same year it had surged to $US20,000 ($A26,000) a coin.
In late February 2021, Bitcoin’s market value surged past the $US1 trillion ($A1.27 trillion) mark for the first time.