Bitcoin breaks $50,000 for the first time

The cryptocurrency traded as high as $50,645 on Tuesday, before slipping back below $50,000. Bitcoin has surged 74% since the beginning of the year, and more than five times in the last 12 months.

Last week, bitcoin surged after Tesla revealed it bought $1.5 billion worth of the digital currency and that it plans to start accepting bitcoin as payment in the “near future.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk discussed bitcoin during an interview on the popular voice chat app Clubhouse.

“I do think at this point bitcoin is a good thing. And, so, I am a supporter of bitcoin. Like I said, I was late to the party, but I am a supporter of bitcoin. And I think, bitcoin is really on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people,” Musk said at the time.

Also, recent interest from major financial firms including BNY Mellon and Mastercard has helped to support the rally by adding legitimacy to the asset.

A Wall Street Journal Report said BNY Mellon planned to issue, hold, and transfer clients’ bitcoin. It would be the first global bank to provide an integrated digital-asset service to its customers.

„BNY Mellon said it would allow digital assets to pass through the same plumbing used by managers’ other, more traditional holdings—from Treasurys to technology stocks—using a platform that is now in prototype. The bank is already discussing plans with clients to bring their digital currencies into the fold,” according to the WSJ.

„Digital assets are becoming part of the mainstream,” said Roman Regelman, chief executive of BNY Mellon’s asset-servicing and digital businesses.

„Growing corporate support for the crypto makes this a very different market to what in was in 2017,” said Neil Wilson, the chief market analyst at the trading platform Markets.com, reffering to that year’s volatility.