Bitcoin digital currency climbs above $ 30,000 for the first time, to $ 33,099 on Saturday

The digital currency Bitcoin extended its record rally on Saturday, starting the year surging more than $ 30,000 for the first time, with more traders and investors betting that it is on its way to becoming a way traditional payment. The price of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency traded as high as $ 33,099 on Saturday, with almost all other markets closed in the first weekend of 2021.

It was the latest rise of about 12 percent to $ 32,883. Bitcoin rose more than 300% in 2020 and, with the last leg higher, it has added more than 50% since crossing $ 20,000 just two weeks ago.

Blockchain currency has only been around for a decade and in 2020, it saw demand increase from the largest American investors, attracted by its perceived qualities as an inflation hedge and its potential for rapid gains, as well as by the expectations that it would become a current payment method. Investors said the limited supply of bitcoin – produced by so-called “mining” computers that validate blocks of transactions by competing to solve mathematical puzzles – has helped accelerate upward moves in recent days. -19 pandemic, similar to gold.

“It is very likely that the asset will eventually exceed $ 100,000 per coin,” Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, a global blockchain project, wrote on Saturday.

“People have been gradually losing confidence in their government currency for years, and monetary policies resulting from the economic impact of the coronavirus have only accelerated this decline.” It trades on numerous exchanges, the largest of which is Coinbase, which is preparing itself to go public and become the first such platform to be listed on Wall Street. Several competing cryptocurrencies use similar blockchain or e-ledger technology.

Ethereum, the second largest, gained 465% in 2020 and rose nearly 7% on Saturday.