Bitcoin Price Rockets: Cryptocurrency price breaks through $20,000 barrier for first time
THE price Bitcoin has surged past the $20,000 barrier for the first time in its history as investor popularity conitnues to surge for the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin’s price has increased by more than five percent over the past 24 hours, according to crycptocurreny website Coin Desk.
The price of Bitcoin plummeted by 25 percent in March as the early financial impacts of the coronavirus pandemic were beginning to be felt.
But the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, whose price has suffered wild fluctations in the past, has enjoyed a stellar few months as it continues its path to becoming a mainstream payment method.
It has gained more than 170 percent this year, pushed by demand from larger investors attracted to its potential for quick gains and purported resistance to rising inflation.
This is also the second major milestone for Bitcoin over recent weeks having reached a new high at the end of November.
Cryptocurrency experts have hailed the recent price surge, and have predicted it could act as a launchpad for Bitcoin’s value to surge even further.
Antoni Trenchev, co-founder and managing partner of cryptocurrency lender Nexo, said: “We have a new line in the sand and the focus shifts to the next round number of $30,000.”
“The is the start of a new chapter for Bitcoin.
“It’s a narrative the media and retail crowd can properly latch onto because they’ve been noticeably absent from this rally.”
Ed Campbell, portfolio manager and managing director at QMA, said: “People tend to pile into momentum trades, so Bitcoin could have more upside from here.”
Danny Scott, chief executive of Isle of Man-based bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange CoinCorner, told Forbes: “As we come to the end of what has been an iconic year for bitcoin, I can only see more positive growth in 2021.
“Compared to 2017 when demand came from the retail market, this will eventually happen again.
“Of course, the current demand is coming from an institutional level completely flying under the radar for many people and it looks set to continue through 2021.”
Bitcoin’s surge has seen a spoke in the amount of the cryptocurrency moving into North America and East Asia, and has become popular with bigger and compliance-wary US investors.
Several investors, particularly hedge funds and family offices, have historically avoided Bitcoin because of the opaque nature of the cryptocurrency market.
But the use of cryptocurrency has become an increasingly trustworthy form of payment due, especially since a tighetning of the industry in the US.
Credit: Express.co.uk
