Bitcoin surpassed $50,000 on Monday, reaching more than three months, as the cryptocurrency continues to pick up.
Bitcoin hit an all-time high of over $64,000 in mid-April but in June and July, it saw a sharp sell-off that its price dropped below $30,000. The regulatory scrutiny from Chinese authorities had forced bitcoin mining operations to shut down and move elsewhere in China.
But since mid-July, bitcoin is gaining upward momentum.
Last week, Coinbase announced the $500 million purchase in crypto on its balance sheet and allocated 10% of quarterly profits into a crypto assets portfolio, this news had a positive impact on the sentiment of investors.
We recently received board approval to purchase over $500M of crypto on our balance sheet to add to our existing holdings. And we’ll be investing 10% of all profit going forward in crypto. I expect this percentage to keep growing over time as the cryptoeconomy matures.
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) August 19, 2021
Yesterday, PayPal announced its crypto service to let British customers buy, hold and sell digital currencies, w.e.f. this week.
Meanwhile, other coins like Ether are also trading at gains. Ethereum, the ether-powered blockchain network, launched a crucial update earlier this month, helping to boost the price. Vijay Ayyar, head of business development at cryptocurrency exchange Luno, in a statement to CNBC, told that buying force was active when the asset was at around $29,000 to $30,000 level when bitcoin was trading at a 50% discount to its all-time high in April. “Lots of large players took advantage of those prices,” Ayyar said, adding that bitcoin can move “to test all-time highs again.”
According to Coinmarketcap, the total value of the cryptocurrency market was above $2.14 trillion on Sunday.