Bitcoin is surging to records, a rally driven in part by the emergence of new investors from passionate individuals to return-starved hedge funds looking to profit from the digital currency’s momentum.
The cryptocurrency rose as high as $19,834.93 on Monday, according to CoinDesk, topping the previous intraday record of $19,783.21 set on Dec. 18, 2017. After trading as low as $3,867 in March, bitcoin has nearly tripled in 2020 and is up 90% since early September. It settled Friday at $18,832.76.
The move is the latest resurrection for the upstart digital currency, which is known for wild bouts of speculative fervor and equally violent crashes.
So far this year, there have been more than 11.9 million transfers of less than $1,000 of bitcoin into personal wallets, according to Chainanalysis, a software company that tracks cryptocurrency transactions. That is up from about 9.1 million in 2017 and suggests more investors are taking part in this year’s rally.
Here are some of bitcoin’s most recent winners:
