Bitcoin on Tuesday, 16 February, hit an all-time high and rose above $50,000 for the first time in history. This comes after Tesla’s $1.5 billion investment in the cryptocurrency, rising Bitcoin’s price to 18 percent since last week.
Several tech giants, including Tesla, PayPal, MicroStrategy, and Mastercard, have also recently started accepting payments as Bitcoins and made big moves to support the cryptocurrency.
According to the information obtained from Crypto exchange WazirX, Bitcoin topped Rs 37 lakh level in India. “The price growth had started gaining momentum since the news of Tesla buying $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin came out. Bitcoin’s continuous price growth is a testament to the fact that more and more institutions are now seeing it as digital gold, and as a hedge against market volatility,” Nischal Shetty, CEO, WazirX told Livemint.
“The recent market conditions and events both in the crypto space and the financial world at large put such a price movement within the realm of possibility," told Jacob Skaaning of crypto hedge fund ARK36 to Reuters.
Stating concerns about the volatile Bitcoin market Skaaning warned people of massive price fluctuations in the Bitcoin value. “However, I'd like to offer a word of caution: while my long-term outlook is bullish, massive price fluctuations along the way are only to be expected. Bitcoin is still extremely volatile,” he added.
Meanwhile, smaller cryptocurrency such as Ethereum also rose 1.1 percent, since the Bitcoin prices increased.
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