- Bitcoin has hit a new high at over $33,000 today. These are the details.
Bitcoin — the largest cryptocurrency (a decentralized digital currency that can be sent from user to user on a P2P network, which are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain) — hit more than $30,000 at about 11:35 AM ET today. And the price of Bitcoin has climbed over 20% over the past week, over 70% in the past month, and over 372% in the past year.
Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency to see significant gains this past year. Ethereum is up over 510% over the past year and Dogecoin is up over 400% in the past year.
One of the driving forces for the price increases is the integration of cryptocurrencies by major corporations. For example, Visa, PayPal, and Square recently started offering digital currency services. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (Mass Mutual) recently bought $100 million worth of Bitcoin. And in a more high-profile acceptance story, MicroStrategy made a $250 million investment in Bitcoin back in August.
Financial analysts have been mixed about Bitcoin. Some are very bullish and are predicting $50,000 by Valentine’s Day and the case for $500,000 was cited by Tyler Winklevoss of Winklevoss Capital.
This is not the first time that Bitcoin saw a major surge in price. Back in 2015, it was trading at $327 and it went as high as about $19,650 in December 2017 before dropping back down to about $3,400 in December 2018.
The price of Bitcoin is volatile so you should proceed with caution if you plan to invest. I have been buying small amounts of cryptocurrencies at a time and I plan to keep it at under 5% of my total investment portfolio for the purposes of diversification. This content is intended for informational purposes. Before making any investment, you should do your own analysis.
