Bitcoin continued its record-breaking run on Saturday as it briefly rose above USD 60,000 for the first time on Saturday. The most popular virtual currency hit the new high with increasing backing from corporate heavyweights. The cryptocurrency hit an all-time high of $60,012 at 1149 GMT, according to the website CoinMarketCap.
Since March last year, Bitcoin has seen a meteoric rise. At that time, it stood at USD 5000. It’s rise has been spurred, in part, by online payments giant PayPal saying it would allow account holders to use cryptocurrency.
Last month Elon Musk’s electric carmaker Tesla invested $1.5 billion in the virtual unit, while Twitter chief Jack Dorsey and rap mogul Jay-Z said they are creating a fund aimed at making Bitcoin “the internet’s currency”.
Others jumping on the bandwagon include Wall Street player BNY Mellon, investment fund giant BlackRock and credit card titan Mastercard.
Bitcoin hit headlines in 2017 after it rose from less than USD 1000 in January to almost USD 20,000 in December that year.
However the last year’s rise has been more steady, with investors and Wall Street finance giants wooed by dizzying growth, the opportunity for profit and asset diversification, and a safe store of value to guard against inflation.
Bitcoins are traded via a decentralised registry system known as a blockchain.
The system requires massive computer processing power in order to manage and implement transactions.
That power is provided by “miners”, who do so in the hope they will receive new bitcoins for validating transaction data.
(With AFP inputs)