Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, hit a price of $68,785.95 on Tuesday morning, coming close to the all-time-high of $68,789.63 that it reached on November 10, 2021, according to the CoinMarketCap live tracker.
ADVERTISEMENT
While some media outlets reported that Bitcoin had beaten the 2021 record by a few dollars, other live trackers did not concur with this.
Bitcoin is a highly volatile asset and within hours of crossing the $68,000 threshold, the price of the coin dropped below $67,000 once more.
ADVERTISEMENT
The crypto asset’s price spiked by more than 20% in the past week. In the past year, Bitcoin had touched prices as low as $19,628.25, according to CoinMarketCap.
(For top technology news of the day, subscribe to our tech newsletter Today’s Cache)
Due to its large market cap and dominant market status, Bitcoin’s rocketing price helped lift the prices of other top crypto coins and tokens, including memecoins. Popular with Indian investors, Shiba Inu (SHIB) rose by more than 280% in the past week while Dogecoin (DOGE) shot up by more than 100%, per CoinMarketCap statistics.
ADVERTISEMENT
Bitcoin investors and miners are preparing for the “Bitcoin halving” event that is due to take place around April this year, in which the reward for mining Bitcoin will be cut in half. The halving takes place around every four years and slows down the rate at which new coins enter the system. Many investors believe this makes the price of Bitcoin go up, due to its perceived scarcity.
Out of the 21 million BTC in total, more than 19 million are already in circulation.
Past Bitcoin price spikes have been followed by steep crashes as short-term investors rapidly sold their assets in order to turn a quick profit.