Cryptocurrency Bitcoin began the year with a bang as it surged over USD 30,000 for the first time ever on Saturday. However, it continued its record-braking rally and breached the USD 34,000-mark on Sunday as investors increasingly bet the digital currency to become a conventional payment method.
Bitcoin gained as much as 7.8 per cent to USD 34,182.75 in Singapore.
Reports said that Bitcoin reached nearly USD 33,000 on Saturday before settling at USD 30,800. It had achieved the milestone of reaching USD 20,000 in December.
The popular digital currency advanced more than 300 per cent in 2020. Ethereum, another cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin, gained 465 per cent in 2020 and was up 5.3 per cent on Saturday.
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.
It has been reported that the popularity of this digital currency in recent times could be attributed to the fact that PayPal enabled its account holders to use Bitcoin.
Recent gains have taken Bitcoin’s market capitalisation past USD 536 billion, CoinMarketCap website reported.
(With inputs from agencies)
