Bitcoin, the world’s top cryptocurrency, has picked up momentum yet again, hitting an all-time high on Saturday. According to Coin Desk, it rose to $60.065, a more than 2 percent rise from its previous high of $58,330 on February 21. In the last 24 hours alone, it went up by nearly 6 percent in 24 hours.

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After its February 21 high, Bitcoin had retreated to as low as $43,000 following uncertainty over stimulus expectations and their subsequent impact on US bond yields. Stocks and cryptocurrencies witnessed losses along with sideways trading for weeks together, before getting back on track in the past seven days.

Saturday’s record comes after US President Joe Biden signed a massive $1.9-trillion stimulus bill on Thursday. The bill will dish out $1,400 cheque payments to most Americans, help the unemployed, expand public health care and garner funds for vaccination programmes.

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The cryptocurrency’s price is now up almost 1,400 percent from March 2020’s low of $4,000. According to CompaniesMarketCap.com, the rise to $60,000 brings Bitcoin’s market cap to $1.12 trillion, which is not too far from Alphabet (Google)’s $1.385 trillion value.

Of late, Bitcoin has found the backing of mainstream investors and companies such as Tesla, Mastercard and Bank of New York Mellon.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has often endorsed the cryptocurrency on social media platforms. The electric car maker’s $1.5 billion Bitcoin purchase on February 8 had pushed up its price to $50,000.

Corporate players such as BNY Mellon had announced their decision to allow clients to hold Bitcoin in their portfolios. Business software company MicroStrategy MSTR, on the other hand, had declared that it was issuing $600 million in bonds to buy the cryptocurrency.

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Bitcoin supporters have hailed it as ‘digital gold’, arguing that it can hedge against the risks of inflation sparked by huge central bank and government stimulus packages designed to battle the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The critics are of the view that the rally is only a stimulus-fuelled bubble that is soon to burst like it did during the 2017-2018 boom-and-bust cycle.

(Edited by : Jomy)

First Published:Mar 13, 2021 7:27 PM IST