Bitcoin breaches US$34,000 as rally extends into new year

London

BITCOIN, the world's largest cryptocurrency, topped US$34,000, just weeks after passing another major milestone.

The currency gained as much as 7.8 per cent to US$34,182.75, before slipping to about US$33,970 as of 3:05 pm on Sunday in Singapore.

It advanced almost 50 per cent in December, when it breached US$20,000 for the first time.

The latest gains top an eye-popping rally for the controversial digital asset in 2020, which rebounded sharply after a severe crash in March that saw it lose 25 per cent amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The currency "will be on the road to US$50,000 probably in the first quarter of 2021," said Antoni Trenchev, managing partner and co-founder of Nexo in London, which bills itself as the world's biggest crypto lender.

Institutional investors returning to their desks this week are likely to boost prices further after retail buying over the holidays, he said.

Bitcoin has increasingly been "embraced in more global investment portfolios as holders expand beyond tech geeks and speculators", Bloomberg Intelligence commodity strategist Mike McGlone wrote in a note last month.

Bitcoin should eventually climb to about US$400,000, Scott Minerd, chief investment officer of Guggenheim Investments, told Bloomberg Television in a Dec 16 interview.

Still, there are reasons to be cautious, partly since Bitcoin remains a thinly traded market.

The currency slumped as much as 14 per cent on Nov 26 amid warnings that the asset class was overdue a correction. The big run-up in price in 2017 was followed by an 83 per cent rout that lasted a year. BLOOMBERG