Bitcoin’s market cap surpassed the $ 1 trillion mark on Friday, with the world’s largest cryptocurrency continuing its impressive recovery.
The milestone came when the price of a single bitcoin rose to a new all-time high of $ 54,827.69 just before noon, rising about 5.6 percent from the previous day, CoinDesk data shows.
This means that bitcoin is now worth more than almost a handful of publicly traded companies in the world and accounts for about 61% of the combined value of all cryptocurrencies in circulation, according to Coinmarketcap.com.
Bitcoin’s value has increased by more than 82% since the beginning of this year, as an increasing number of institutional investors and large companies have started to treat it as a common asset.
The digital currency was boosted Friday by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who said it was “a less stupid form of liquidity than money”. Its electric car maker announced last week that it had bought $ 1.5 billion in bitcoin and planned to accept the cryptocurrency as payment.
Tesla is not alone – Mastercard said it hopes to support certain crypto transactions on its network this year, and BNY Mellon, the country’s oldest bank, recently announced that it would start providing banking services for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.