The incredible ride that has been the price of bitcoin this year hit back-to-back milestones Wednesday as the leading cryptocurrency blasted past $36,000 for the first time ever, then a little over three hours later briefly crossed $37,000.
- The price of bitcoin soared to a new-all time high of $37,014.58, before settling back to $36,780.78, up 6.40% over the last 24 hours.
- It continues a wild start to 2021 and follows a landmark year in which the cryptocurrency rose more than 300%, with an almost 50% gain in December alone. On Nov. 30, bitcoin breached a nearly three-year-old high of $19,793. By the close of Dec. 31, the cryptocurrency had risen about $10,000.
- Five days into 2021, it's up 25.1%, more than $7,000.
- The prevailing narrative of this record-setting run is a growing view that bitcoin represents a form of "digital gold," a view that has brought a flood of institutional investors into the cryptocurrency.
- Today's record, however, may have more to do with the storming of the U.S. Capitol by President Donald Trump's supporters believing the election was rigged and upset by the certification process that was underway, than with any inflation hedge.
- Global macro uncertainty has the potential to devalue fiat currencies, which in turn could potentially increase the attractiveness of bitcoin. A disputed election followed by protestors breaking into the Capitol with at least one person being shot would seem to fall under the category of "uncertainty."
- With a market value now of $683.1 billion, bitcoin is more valuable than all but eight publicly traded companies, sitting between Tencent at $692.7 billion and Alibaba at $589.4 billion.
- The market's supply of dollar-pegged stablecoins is keeping pace with bitcoin's meteoric rise. Since New Year's Eve, the supply of tether has growth by over 10%, reaching 22.1 billion USDT at least check. Total supply of the runner-up stablecoin, Circle's USDC, has also grown by double digit percentages so far in January, currently sitting at 4.3 billion USDC, according to Glassnode.
UPDATE (Jan. 5, 20:23 UTC): Adds possible reason for bitcoin rally.
UPDATE (Jan. 6, 00:05 UTC): Adds that bitcoin hit $37,000.
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