The world's most popular cryptocurrency was
last up 2.3 percent at $28,012. It has surged by nearly half since breaking
$20,000 for the first time on December 16.
Bitcoin has increasingly seen demand from
larger US investors in particular, attracted by its perceived inflation-hedging
qualities and potential for quick gains, as well as expectations it would
become a mainstream payments method.
Investors said limited supply of bitcoin,
produced by so-called "mining" computers that validate blocks of
transactions by competing to solve mathematical puzzles, has helped power
upward moves over recent days.
Many recent entrants to the market are
holding onto positions, they said.
"The supply side to the bitcoin market
will remain tight," said Jacob Skaaning of crypto hedge fund ARK36.
The latest gains took bitcoin's market
capitalisation past $518 billion (roughly Rs. 37,93,300 crores), according to
industry website CoinMarketCap.
Other major cryptocurrencies, which tend to
move in tandem with bitcoin, were flat. Ethereum, the second biggest, was down
0.4 percent, on track for a 2020 gain of around 465 percent.
© Reuters