TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Management shake-up at TymeBank – including a new CEO

      24 May 2022

      Standard Bank CEO apologises for weekend downtime

      24 May 2022

      South Africa fifth in Africa for blockchain funding

      24 May 2022

      Hein Engelbrecht to lead Mustek on interim basis

      24 May 2022

      Datatec in talks over Analysys Mason unit

      24 May 2022
    • World

      Terra collapse triggers $83-billion DeFi slump

      24 May 2022

      Zuckerberg sued in personal capacity over Cambridge Analytica

      24 May 2022

      Is the end of the bitcoin winter nigh?

      24 May 2022

      Zoom leaps higher on upbeat forecast

      24 May 2022

      Michael Dell becomes kingmaker in Broadcom, VMware deal

      23 May 2022
    • In-depth

      Bernie Fanaroff – the scientist who put African astronomy on the map

      23 May 2022

      Chip giant ASML places big bets on a tiny future

      20 May 2022

      Elon Musk is becoming like Henry Ford – and that’s not a good thing

      17 May 2022

      Stablecoins wend wobbly way into the unknown

      17 May 2022

      The standard model of particle physics may be broken

      11 May 2022
    • Podcasts

      The rewarding and lucrative careers to be had in infosec

      23 May 2022

      Dean Broadley on why product design at Yoco is an evolving art

      18 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E02 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 2’

      17 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E01 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 1’

      10 May 2022

      Llew Claasen on how exchange controls are harming SA tech start-ups

      2 May 2022
    • Opinion

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022

      Cash is still king … but not for much longer

      31 March 2022

      Icasa on the role of TV white spaces and dynamic spectrum access

      31 March 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Sections»Cryptocurrencies»Bitcoin punches through $20 000 for the first time

    Bitcoin punches through $20 000 for the first time

    Cryptocurrencies By Editor16 December 2020
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    Bitcoin smashed through US$20 000 for the first time on Wednesday, its highest ever, amid increased institutional and corporate interest.

    The cryptocurrency hit an all-time peak of $20 800 and was last up 6.4% at $20 675. It has gained more than 170% this year, buoyed by demand from larger investors attracted to its potential for quick gains, purported resistance to inflation and expectations it will become a mainstream payment method.

    Smaller coins ethereum and XRP, which often move in tandem with bitcoin, gained 5.4% and 8.1%, respectively.

    It would not be surprising to see other coins follow in BTC’s footsteps and for this upward trajectory to be sustained into 2021

    “Many of our clients have been expecting bitcoin to surpass its all-time high of $20 000 given the recent news from major institutional players like SGX and MassMutual openly endorsing bitcoin,” said Scott Freeman, co-founder & partner at trading firm JST Capital.

    “While this is a major milestone for this nascent asset class, as retail, institutional and blue-chip investors alike allocate more capital to this space, it would not be surprising to see other coins follow in BTC’s footsteps and for this upward trajectory to be sustained into 2021.”

    Bitcoin’s blistering rally has seen a massive flow of coin to North America from East Asia, fuelled by hunger for bitcoin among bigger and compliance-wary US investors.

    Safe haven

    British fund manager Ruffer Investment Management, which managed £20.3-billion in assets at end-November, made a bet on bitcoin now worth around £550-million, a spokesman for the company said.

    The rally in bitcoin, which some investors have seen as a potential safe haven, has coincided with spot gold’s drop in recent months.

    Some investors such as hedge funds and family offices have in the past been deterred by the opaque nature of the crypto market. Tightening oversight of the American crypto industry has helped soothe some of those concerns.

    After touching a record high just under $20 000 in late November, bitcoin stalled and even went below $17 000, stoking fears that it would be a repeat of the asset’s collapse in 2018.

    Glassnode, which provides insight on blockchain data, said long-term holders of bitcoin had been selling the virtual currency after it reached the November record peak. It noted, however, that this was overall a long-term bullish signal rooted in previous price trends.  — Reported by Thyagaraju Adinarayan and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss, (c) 2020 Reuters

    Bitcoin top
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleSamsung, IBM in deal to combine private 5G with ‘edge computing’
    Next Article How South African companies need to prepare for the digital future

    Related Posts

    Management shake-up at TymeBank – including a new CEO

    24 May 2022

    Standard Bank CEO apologises for weekend downtime

    24 May 2022

    South Africa fifth in Africa for blockchain funding

    24 May 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Generalists tend to outperform specialists when the going gets tough

    24 May 2022

    Vodacom champions innovation acceleration in Africa

    23 May 2022

    Kyocera answers top 10 questions on enterprise content management

    23 May 2022
    Opinion

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

    19 April 2022

    How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

    8 April 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.