Bitcoin surges part $62,000 to new record ahead of Coinbase IPO

Bitcoin has broken its price record after climbing above the $62,000 mark, as momentum ahead of crypto exchange Coinbase’s debut on Wall Street motivated investors.

The cryptocurrency had risen more than 2.89% in the last 24 hours to reach a high of $62,478 at 9:21am in London on 13 April, according to data from Luxembourg-based exchange Bitstamp.

Coinbase, the largest digital currency exchange in the US, is due to list its shares on the Nasdaq on 13 April. It will be the first major listing of its kind for the sector, and viewed by traders as a bellwether for cryptocurrencies entering the mainstream.

Bitcoin and other digital assets have been on a price rally since the start of 2021, as retail and institutional investors alike jumped on the bandwagon. Data from CoinShares showed digital asset investment products saw inflows of $83m last week, and reported the first week of no outflows across providers since mid-February.

Companies such as Tesla, Square and MicroStrategy have piled into bitcoin as a way to diversify their portfolios, buying up billions of dollars worth of the cryptocurrency collectively.

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Banks have also started to get on board, with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and BNY Mellon all announcing trading plans linked to cryptocurrencies.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, noted that other digital currencies such as ether, litecoin and stellar had also all hit record highs this month.

On the back of bitcoin’s achievement earlier on 13 April, ether soon followed suit to reach a record high of $2,212 at 9:34am.

“With bitcoin already having more than doubled in the last six months and cryptocurrencies becoming more popular with more mainstream investors it can certainly be argued that crypto has become more mainstream,” he wrote in a note to investors on 9 April.

To contact the author of this story with feedback or news, email Emily Nicolle