Reuters- Bitcoin hit a record of $62,741 on Tuesday (April 13), extending its 2021 rally to new heights a day before the listing of Coinbase shares in the United States.
The largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange's listing on the Nasdaq on Wednesday (April 14) is considered a landmark victory for cryptocurrency advocates.
Bitcoin is the world's biggest cryptocurrency, with growing mainstream acceptance as an investment and a means of payment. It rose as much as 5% on Tuesday. Smaller rival Ethereum also reached a record high of $2,205.
The overall cryptocurrency market capitalisation hit an all-time peak of $2 trillion earlier this month, according to data and market trackers CoinGecko and Blockfolio.
Major firms including BNY Mellon, Mastercard Inc and Tesla Inc are among those to have embraced or invested in cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin topped $60,000 early last month, fuelled by Tesla's move to buy $1.5 billion of the digital currency for its balance sheet. For the past two weeks, it had traded in a tight range.
The multifold rise in cryptocurrencies is also driven by investors seeking high-yielding assets amid low interest rates. However, the meteoric rise of bitcoin, which traded at a few hundred dollars only five years earlier, has led major investment banks to warn of a speculative bubble.
Several fund managers surveyed by BofA and Deutsche Bank have said Bitcoin was in "bubble" territory and expect it to pull back sharply.
At 1044 GMT on Tuesday, bitcoin was at $62,505.27, up around 4.5% on the day.
