On Saturday, January 2, the bitcoin rate rose by more than 4% and for the first time in the entire observation period exceeded the $ 30 thousand mark. At the same time, during the trading, the indicator briefly rose to $ 30.7 thousand. Such data are provided by the Coinmarketcap portal.

Note that over the past year, the value of an electronic coin has almost quadrupled.

As experts interviewed by RT explain, the coronavirus pandemic has become the determining factor for the rise in the price of cryptocurrency.

Traditionally, at a time of growing uncertainty in the global economy, investors are beginning to actively invest in gold and other precious metals for more reliable savings.

Meanwhile, bitcoin has recently begun to acquire similar properties of a protective asset, says Artyom Deev, head of the analytical department at AMarkets.

“Against the backdrop of the global economic crisis and pandemic, large institutional investors have begun to invest in cryptocurrency.

As a result, the capitalization of the entire cryptocurrency market has grown, and bitcoin has become a kind of alternative to gold, "Deev explained.

Analysts believe that in the near future, the dynamics of the digital currency will continue to depend on the situation with the coronavirus.

If the population is successfully vaccinated against COVID-19, the global economic recovery may accelerate.

In these conditions, the rise in price of bitcoin, on the contrary, risks slowing down, says the head of the data analysis department of CEX.IO Broker Yuri Mazur.

At the same time, according to him, the structural features of the digital coin also affect the rise in bitcoin prices.

The main cryptocurrency exists on the basis of blockchain technology - a single database that contains information about all transactions carried out.

The emission of bitcoins occurs due to mining - solving complex mathematical problems and the appearance of a new block in the blockchain network.

Each such block is an array of data, where information about the transactions carried out after the creation of the previous block is entered.

Miners receive bitcoins as a reward for solving the problem.

At the moment, almost 18.6 million bitcoins have already been "mined" in this way.

At the same time, according to the developers' idea, in contrast to the endlessly printed paper money, the number of bitcoins is limited and can be a maximum of 21 million cryptocoins.

"Since the emission of bitcoin will not exceed 21 million coins, and its rate is strictly regulated by the blockchain protocol, cryptocurrency has become a fundamentally new financial instrument, ideally suited to save money from inflationary risks," Mazur said.

Note that for the first time, the rush growth of the global cryptocurrency market occurred in 2017.

Then, from January to December, bitcoin rose in price more than 20 times - from $ 0.9 thousand to $ 20 thousand - and even managed to briefly enter the five largest currencies in the world.

However, the rapid rise in the rate of the electronic coin began to alarm investors, and many economists began to talk seriously about the threat of another financial bubble.

Ultimately, the fears of experts were confirmed: in 2018, the cost of bitcoin fell by almost 80% - from $ 20 thousand per coin to $ 3-4 thousand. The collapse of the electronic coin market was largely due to the strengthening of global regulation of the industry, constant hacker attacks on crypto exchanges. as well as withdrawal of funds by large investors into real money.

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Given the sharp rise in the price of bitcoin in 2020, analysts do not exclude a second collapse of the cryptocurrency rate in 2021.

According to Artyom Deev, in the first months of this year, the rate of an electronic coin can reach $ 40 thousand, after which a correction may occur in the market.

“The cost of digital currency risks repeating the dynamics of 2018 and collapsing several times.

However, after that the rate will probably start to grow again and may even reach new highs, ”Deev said.

According to experts, the main driver of the growth of the bitcoin rate will be the development of digital currencies in a number of countries.

The corresponding initiative, for example, has already been announced by the Bank of Russia, and China conducted a pilot launch of the electronic yuan back in 2019.

Against this background, investors will more actively invest in the electronic money market, analysts are sure.

“I do not rule out that Bitcoin will reach a value of $ 50 thousand, because the capitalization of this asset is still quite small compared to gold, bonds and shares of many companies.

This can become one of the key factors in favor of the coin for many investors and large companies, ”concluded Yuri Mazur.