On January 2, Bitcoin was trading at about $30,300. On Sunday morning, it surpassed $34,000 for the first time ever, which put the gain this year at almost $5,000.
2021 started with a strong rally for Bitcoin (BTC). It soared to $34,700 on Sunday and now is fluctuating between $32,000 and $34,000. Notably, the Bitcoin price is at the same level as Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) cars.
A #bitcoin now buys you a Tesla. So, when will you accept it, @elonmusk? pic.twitter.com/RONfVvH9i1
— Documenting ₿itcoin 📄 (@DocumentingBTC) January 3, 2021
On January 2, Bitcoin was trading at about $30,300. On Sunday morning, it surpassed $34,000 for the first time ever, which put the gain this year at almost $5,000.
In December, Bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time, advancing almost 50%. It took a few days for Bitcoin to break another record, $25,000.
*BITCOIN EXTENDS RALLY TO TOP $30,000 FOR THE FIRST TIME
Bitcoin first passed $20,000 on December 16, and $25,000 on December 26. Now over $31,000
50+% gain in less than 16 days!Bitcoin makes TSLA look like it is standing still. pic.twitter.com/5XUSv9jv00
— Jim Bianco (@biancoresearch) January 2, 2021
Antoni Trenchev, managing partner and co-founder of London-based Nexo, said:
“The currency will be on the road to $50,000 probably in the first quarter of 2021.”
Some also believe Bitcoin’s value could rise further because of the US dollar drop.
Currently, Bitcoin is the ninth-largest asset with a $611 billion market cap, it stands behind Alibaba (HKG: 9988) and Tesla.
According to analysts, institutional investors drove Bitcoin’s rally. To name a few, Anthony Scaramucci’s Skybridge Capital invested $182 million in Bitcoin in December, MassMutual invested $100 million, and Guggenheim spent up to 10% of its $5 billion macro fund on BTC.
Laurent Kssis, managing director at 21Shares, stated:
“Bitcoin price is being driven by institutional money and there is not enough supply. The number of family offices asking to invest in our ETP is just staggering. I’ve never seen this before. In 2017 it was just retail knocking at the door now it’s only institutional.”
He further added:
“Many corporations are parking USD in BTC because they are losing money in conventional banking so it makes total sense.”
Other cryptos have also advanced. For example, Ethereum (ETH) price rose past $900 for the first time since early February 2018. As of the press moment, Ethereum is trading at $1,123.
Bitcoin Network’s 12 Year Anniversary
Notably, Bitcoin’s rally coincides with the anniversary of the BTC blockchain. Back on January 3, 2009, Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto launched the network, with the first genesis block (block number 0) mined. It had a reward of 50 bitcoins. Since then, over 664,000 bitcoin blocks have been mined.
This first blockchain message etched into the bitcoin block said:
“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”
The text refers to a headline in The Times published on 3 January 2009.
On January 9, Bitcoin will celebrate another date. In particular, 12 years ago on this date, the first open-source bitcoin client was released. Then, on January 12, the first Bitcoin transaction was completed on block #170. Satoshi Nakamoto was a sender, programmer Hal Finney was a receiver. He downloaded the bitcoin software the day it was released and received 10 bitcoins from Nakamoto.
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