Bitcoin hits record high, traded for $60,000 a coin

A few days ago, the world's richest man Alan Musk's car company Tesla said that in January 2021 it bought $1.5 billion worth of cryptocurrency. After Tesla announcement, the price of bitcoin increased significantly and one Bitcoin touched the limit of $44,000.

Now the cryptocurrency has crossed another milestone and the price of a bitcoin has exceeded $60,000.

Bitcoin has been on a dramatic rise since March last year, when it stood at $5,000, spurred by online payments giant PayPal saying it would allow account holders to use cryptocurrency.

Last month Elon Musk's electric carmaker Tesla invested $1.5 billion in the virtual unit, while Twitter chief Jack Dorsey and rap mogul Jay-Z said they are creating a fund aimed at making Bitcoin “the internet's currency”.

Others jumping on the bandwagon include Wall Street player BNY Mellon, investment fund giant BlackRock and credit card titan MasterCard.

Bitcoin, which was launched back in 2009, hit the headlines in 2017 after soaring from less than $1,000 in January to almost $20,000 in December of the same year.

The virtual bubble then burst in subsequent days, with bitcoin's value then fluctuating wildly before sinking below $5,000 by October 2018.

However, the last year's rise has been more steady, with investors and Wall Street finance giants wooed by dizzying growth, the opportunity for profit and asset diversification, and a safe store of value to guard against inflation.

Bitcoins are traded via a decentralised registry system known as a blockchain.

The system requires massive computer processing power in order to manage and implement transactions.

That power is provided by “miners”, who do so in the hope they will receive new bitcoins for validating transaction data.