The price of bitcoin has now achieved a new record level, with the crypto surpassing $41,000 (£30,000) for the first time in its 12-year history. As of 11.20am GMT on Friday, January 8, BTC is trading at $41,269 (£30,352) CoinDesk.com data confirms.
This historic event occurred only days after the controversial crypto hit new heights of more than $34,800 (£25,596).
The movement is all the more impressive considering bitcoin only breached the $20,000 (£14,712) barrier in December last year.
Seamus Donoghue, VP Sales and Business Development at cryptocurrency management provider METACO believe the future is bright for bitcoin.
He told Express.co.uk today: “The bitcoin bull move is only just starting.
Mr Donoghue said: “The market cap of BTC has been growing rapidly as new institutional buying comes into the market.
“There was clearly a shortage of available bitcoin under 20K when one company, PayPal, was itself buying in quantities that exceeded all the newly minted Bitcoin.
“Higher prices can address secondary market liquidity and we have seen the market cap rise from 350 billion to over 700 billion [dollars].”
The crypto experts adds there is an important distinction to be made between the current bitcoin run and the bubble that burst in 2017.
He said: [The] 2017-2018 crypto bull run access to crypto markets was relatively difficult and available only through small crypto start ups.
“One of the defining drivers of the 2020 bull market has been new institutional infrastructure that has delivered easy access for new investors, for example, Paypal enabling its 350 million users to access the crypto markets.
An ETF [Exchange-Traded Funds providing investors with and added security] would be another validation of bitcoin as an investable asset class and provide easy and instant access to every retail and institutional brokerage account.”
Recent research made by business and tech advisory firm Aite Group reveals almost a quarter of US adults with access to the internet are retail online traders and an additional six percent are professional traders, together equivalent to a self-directed US trading population of more than 54 million adults.
Mr Donoghue added: “A listed Bitcoin ETF would open-up investment access to the $7 trillion in assets currently held in ETFs.”
David Wachsman, CEO of Wachsman also believes unprecedented levels of institutional adoption of digital assets are responsible for BTC’s impressive trajectory.
He said in a statement: “The psychological barrier which kept Bitcoin below the $20,000 level was finally cleared at the tail end of 2020 and in just 20 days, it has doubled and reached $40,000.
“This past year has seen institutions like PayPal providing on-ramps to crypto to 325 million plus users across the globe, and firms such as Microstrategy and Square investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the asset - making it a significantly stronger asset since its previous peak in 2017.
“The narrative of Bitcoin as an inflation hedge presents a win-win possibility for bitcoin, as investors awaiting the announcement of more economic stimulus in the US turn to the asset.
“Equally, the positive news on vaccine rollouts and stimulus which is driving the rise in traditional capital markets also appears to be buoying bitcoin."
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