Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency leader, is recording daily reported prices.
According to CoinDesk, a cryptocurrency site, the price of bitcoin exceeded $50,000 each in the early morning of the 18th (Korean time).
The highest price is around $52,600.
On the night of the 16th, two days ago, it exceeded the 50,000 dollar mark for the first time in history, followed by the 51,000 dollar mark on the 17th.
As a result, the price of bitcoin has more than quadrupled last year and has already increased by an additional 80% this year.
Some criticize this as a more severe bubble than the 17th century tulip speculation frenzy, but on the other hand, a positive interpretation is raised that cryptocurrency is a new safe asset to replace gold, as the dollar depreciated due to monetary easing policies.
Cash Wood, the CEO of Arc Invest, an American investment firm that has recently gained a reputation as a high-yield exchange-traded fund (ETF), appeared on the US economy broadcast CNBC on the 17th (local time), and more companies incorporated bitcoin into their assets. It said that the price could reach $250,000.
"If US companies add 10% of their cash to Bitcoin, the price of Bitcoin will rise by another $200,000," he said.
He added that he doubts whether this will happen quickly, but the pace of bitcoin asset incorporation by some companies recently is surprising.
"I think Bitcoin will rise to $100,000 this year," said Anthony Skaramuch, the founder of US hedge fund manager Skybridge Capital, who temporarily served as the White House Public Affairs Commissioner in the early days of the Donald Trump administration.
"We're starting to touch it a bit," said Rick Leader, CIO of Global Bonds at Black Rock, the world's largest asset management company, and formalized Black Rock's entry into the Bitcoin market.
In addition, Robin Hood, an online brokerage firm that is widely used by individual US investors, said it plans to allow deposits and withdrawals of virtual currency.
In addition to the recent announcement that US electric vehicle company Tesla has already bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin, high-tech companies and financial companies in the mainstream such as PayPal, New York Melon Bank (BNY Melon), and Mastercard have invested in bitcoin and started business. I did.
Of course, there are many critical views on Bitcoin's recent rise.
JPMorgan said in a report on the 16th that if volatility does not weaken, Bitcoin's current price level does not seem sustainable.
The report noted that "the movement of bitcoin prices this year seems to be affected by the speculative flow."
Cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, also have a large market opacity.
In the case of the cryptocurrency'DojiCoin', which is known to have been bought by Tesla CEO Elon Musk to give to his son, and has gained more attention, there are records that one person or one institution owns 28% of the total circulation, The Wall Street Journal ( WSJ) reported on this day.
Dogecoin's price has already risen 900% this year, supported by Musk.
Dogecoin was a virtual currency created by software developers Billy Marcus and Jackson Palmer for fun in 2013, and adopted the Japanese Shiba Inu, a popular Internet meme (meme, a photo or video popular on the Internet) as a mascot.
Above all, the memory of the crash in the past, when the price of Bitcoin exceeded $20,000 in 2017 and lost 80% of its value in the following year, is alarming.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that began in full-fledged circulation in 2009, right after the financial crisis, and is known to have been created by the undisclosed developer, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Initially, the meaning of resistance to the current banking system was considered great, but recently, as mainstream investment and participation spread, it is also evaluated as'digital gold'.