Bitcoin has risen suddenly, soaring sharply above $ 60,000 per bitcoin for the first time since mid-March.
Bitcoin price peaked at $ 61,222 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange before slipping back slightly, up 5% in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, soared to a new all-time high above USD 2,100.
However, the exact cause of bitcoin’s early Saturday morning price surge was not immediately clear, a cryptic tweet from Tesla.
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Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, often moves bitcoin and [+]
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“… is going to the moon soon,” Musk said via email TwitterShortly after bitcoin price rose, perhaps referring to the popular “bitcoin to the moon” memo and giving rise to speculation, Musk’s rocket company SpaceX could follow Tesla in adding bitcoin to its balance sheet.
“Buy SpaceX bitcoin?” asked Danny Scott, the chief executive of Isle of Man-based bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange CoinCorner, in response to Musk’s tweet.
Late last year, Elon Musk set the bitcoin and cryptocurrency market ablaze when he tweeted about the possibility of making large bitcoin purchases. In the weeks that followed, Tesla added $ 1.5 billion worth of bitcoin to its balance sheet.
Meanwhile, Musk has continued his “fav” cryptocurrency on Twitter, bitcoin’s “joke” rival dogecoin. On April 1, Musk said his private rocket company SpaceX is going to put a “dogecoin on the literal moon” – pushing the price of the meme-based cryptocurrency up 35%.
The price of bitcoin has doubled so far in 2021, from just under $ 30,000 per bitcoin. Due to the broad cryptocurrency rally, the entire crypto market has more than doubled to reach a combined value of more than $ 2 trillion, with ethereum up 1,200% over the past 12 months.
Ethereum has soared after the start of a highly anticipated upgrade and has been driven by the growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) – using cryptocurrency technology to reinvent traditional finance, largely on the Ethereum blockchain.
Bitcoin price has suddenly risen higher, rising above the well-watched $ 60,000 per bitcoin [+]
Coinbase
Bitcoin’s massive rally started by news PayPal
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Bitcoin has also seen its reputation as “digital gold” grow over the past year thanks to renowned investors, including Paul Tudor Jones, who referred to it as a hedge against inflation.
“Until recently, established brokers, advisors and banks have written off crypto as ‘too volatile’ – as they did 20 years ago with current household tech brands because they did not recognize it as a legitimate asset class in advice to investors,” Stephen Kelso , head of capital markets at ITI Capital, said in email comments.
“Now we are seeing a dramatic change in the approach of asset and asset managers, who are increasingly advising their clients that bitcoin is a preferential investment over gold.”