Bitcoin bulls are having a boom.
The popular cryptocurrency reached record levels of more than $ 40,000 on Thursday, bringing the total value of all bitcoins to more than $ 700 billion. The gains provide a gain of more than 30% so far in 2021 and an increase of almost 400% last year.
The price of Bitcoin is growing. Image source: Getty Images.
A wave of institutional capital and new retail offerings have contributed to the rise of Bitcoin.
MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) started using bitcoin as its main treasury reserve asset in August. The business intelligence company has already purchased more than 70,000 bitcoins, a stake currently valued at more than $ 2.7 billion.
Square (NYSE: SQ) also invested in bitcoin, albeit on a smaller scale. The fintech leader bought $ 50 million in bitcoin in October, which has since grown to more than $ 180 million. Square also offers users of its popular Cash App the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Its bitcoin-related revenue and gross profit increased 11 times and 15 times, to $ 1.63 billion and $ 32 million, respectively, in the third quarter.
PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) also entered the crypto arena. The digital payments giant gave its more than 360 million users the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrencies in October. It also plans to allow its users to make purchases with bitcoin and other digital currencies on its 26 million merchant websites in early 2021.
Bitcoin bulls, meanwhile, see much more gains ahead. JPMorgan analysts said on Tuesday that the price of a single bitcoin could rise up to $ 146,000 in the coming years, as more people begin to embrace cryptocurrency as a digital reserve of similar value to gold.