LONDON (Dispatches) - The world’s number one cryptocurrency, bitcoin, has topped the $50,000 mark for the first time in three months, gaining on positive news about crypto adoption.
Bitcoin reached the key psychological level, and was trading at nearly $50,200 on Monday, marking a weekly growth of more than 6%.
The cryptocurrency market continued to rebound after US-based crypto exchange Coinbase announced plans to purchase $500 million in digital currencies on its balance sheet and allocate 10% of profits into a crypto assets portfolio.
Last week, PayPal said it had let its British customers buy, hold and sell digital currencies, marking the first international expansion of the service outside the U.S., where it was launched last October.
Bitcoin reached an all-time high of nearly $65,000 in April, but a heavy selloff in June and July plunged the world’s top crypto to below $30,000. Since then, the cryptocurrency has shown strong growth.
The drop in the first two months of summer was mainly triggered by renewed regulatory steps taken by China, which shut down mining operations in the country. More pressure followed after the U.S. Senate passed an infrastructure bill that included a crypto tax to cover some of the expenditures under the program.