Continuing its upward rally, the world’s most popular digital currency, Bitcoin, touched another record high of $28,600 on Wednesday, recording a 4.4 per cent surge from its previous high. The cryptocurrency has surged nearly half in just 15 days since it achieved the psychological milestone of $20,000 on December 16. The main reason for the rising Bitcoin streak may be bulk buying by big US investors. They expect to make quick gains amid some positive developments around the cryptocurrency, including speculations that it could become a mainstream payment method.
Bitcoin has seen an unprecedented rise this year, with its value witnessing a 240 per cent jump in 2020, giving investors better returns than other traditional mainstream investment platforms.
Since its meteoric rise in December, Bitcoin’s market value has now exceeded $500 billion, as per Coindesk, a cryptocurrency platform. This is more than $460.06 billion m-cap of Visa, the world’s biggest financial service company, as per the Companiesmarketcap data. Both, however, are different and may not be compared: Visa is for-profit financial business while Bitcoin peer-to-peer software system.
Not only Visa, but Bitcoin is valued more than biggest publicly traded companies like Samsung ($463.63 billion) and Walmart ($406.00 billion), the data shows.
Also read:Bitcoin sprints over $27,000 mark; rises over $2,500 in 2 days
A major jump in Bitcoin price — from $5,000 to $25,000 — was seen after PayPal – the online payment major – announced in March that it’ll enable its account holders to use Bitcoin. This marks a colossal 400 per cent increase in the past eight months. ZebPay, one of India’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has predicted that Bitcoin’s value could hit over $135,000 by 2030.
Meanwhile, as the popularity of Bitcoin grows, the Indian government is planning to impose 18 per cent GST on its transactions. The Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB), an arm of the union finance ministry, has put forward a proposal to impose 18 per cent GST, saying it could potentially gain Rs 7,200 crore annually on bitcoin trading. The CEIB came to the conclusion based on a study on levying GST on cryptocurrencies.
Also read: Bitcoin hits $25,000-mark; 400% increase since March