Bitcoin breaches US$2,000, outperforming gold by wide margin

London

BITCOIN has broken through the US$2,000 barrier as growing numbers of individuals and speculators are buying the virtual, digital currency as a safe haven.

So much so, that Bitcoin, priced at US$2,004 on Saturday, has outperformed gold by a wide margin and now exceeds the bullion price by a whopping 60 per cent. A key reason is the shortage of bitcoins, compared to large supplies and stocks of gold.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of the virtual, digital "cryptocurrency" in 2009, devised "Blockchain", a technical network that limited the issuance to a maximum of 21 million bitcoins. So far, only 16.4 million are currently …