By Feuer
The price of bitcoin shot past $50,000 late Sunday evening for the first time in more than three months as the broader crypto market continues to mount a strong rally after months of weakness.
The price of bitcoin first passed the $50,000 mark at around 11 p.m. ET Sunday evening, according to data from Coinbase.
The digital coin exchanged hands at just under $50,200 per coin as of 6:40 a.m. ET Monday, up almost 2 percent from 24 hours earlier. By the end of the day, it had retreated slightly, to 49,251.30.
Bitcoin’s now up almost 7 percent from a week ago and more than 55 percent compared with a month ago, when it was trading at around $30,000 per coin.
The crypto’s still down almost 26 percent from its peak of more than $64,000 per coin that it saw in mid-April.
Since hitting its all-time high, investors sold off bitcoin in June and July, pressuring the digital coin below $30,000 amid renewed government scrutiny in the US, China and elsewhere.
But bitcoin’s been marching steadily upward for about a month now as it’s increasingly recognized and embraced by lawmakers and the corporate world.
On Sunday, PayPal announced it will launch its cryptocurrency service in the UK, letting people buy, hold and sell digital currencies on the platform. It’s an expansion of the company’s service already offered in the US.
And last week, crypto exchange Coinbase announced that it will buy $500 million in crypto on its balance sheet, and begin to invest 10 percent of its total profits into a crypto assets portfolio.
“Hopefully over time we can operate more of our business in crypto,” CEO Brian Armstrong said on Twitter. “Today it is still a mix.”
Other companies, including Elon Musk-helmed Tesla and Microstrategy, have also invested corporate funds into cryptos, calling it a hedge against inflation.
Along with bitcoin, other crypto assets have recently swelled in value, too.
Ethereum was last seen trading at almost $3,340, up more than 2 percent from 24 hours ago and almost 65 percent from a month ago.
Cardano traded hands at $2.83 per coin at about 6:30 a.m. ET Monday, up nearly 8 percent from a day earlier and over 138 percent from a month ago.
Binance Coin traded at about $498, up almost 9 percent from a day earlier and over 69 percent from a month ago.
