Bitcoin skyrockets to all-time high above $8,700
The world's most popular cryptocurrency surpassed $8,700 on Saturday at 17:00 GMT, setting another record high. Bitcoin is up six percent on the day and almost 900 percent this year.
November has been an extremely volatile month for bitcoin. Earlier this month, the digital currency price fell to $5,500 after developers scrapped the SegWit2X update, leading some miners and investors to shift to offshoot bitcoin cash.
However, bitcoin returned to growth on news that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange would start trading futures on the digital currency.
The cryptocurrencies have also been boosted by interest from institutional investors. Goldman Sachs and Citigroup have said they are researching cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology that underlies them and may add them to their portfolio.
Bitcoin started the year just above $1,000, and the overall growth now is approaching 900 percent. The cryptocurrency’s market capitalization has reached $145 billion. That makes bitcoin more valuable than major corporations like Siemens, Mastercard, British American Tobacco or McDonald’s.
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The value of the second largest cryptocurrency ethereum also smashed an all-time high of $485 on Saturday.
Ethereum’s market capitalization is approaching $46 billion, and its gains this year have reached 5,000 percent. At the start of 2017, you could buy one token for $8.27, about 58 times less than the current price.
