Digital currency Bitcoin extended its record-smashing rally over the weekend, beginning the year with a surge over $US30,000 ($38,991) for the first time, with more traders and investors betting it is on its way to becoming a mainstream payment method.
The price of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency traded as high as $US33,099, with almost all other markets closed over the first weekend in 2021. It was last trading up 10.5 per cent at $US32,439.
Bitcoin advanced more than 300 per cent in 2020 and has added more than 50 per cent since crossing $US20,000 just two weeks ago.
The blockchain currency has only been around for a decade or so, and in 2020 it has seen demand grow from larger US investors, attracted by its perceived inflation-hedging qualities and potential for quick gains, as well as expectations it would become a mainstream payments method.
Investors said limited supply of bitcoin – produced by so-called “mining” computers that validate blocks of transactions by competing to solve mathematical puzzles – has helped power upward moves over recent days.
Some also saw it as a safe-haven play during the COVID-19 pandemic, akin to gold.
