Bitcoin is picking up steam, zooming past the $4,000 milestone as spooked investors search for places to park their money.The latest gains have been fueled by heavy buying in Asia, which saw investors exit stocks recently over worries about the North Korean nuclear standoff. During these types of stock selloffs, it’s not uncommon for investors to shift funds into other assets. That dynamic has benefited bitcoin the last few days — possibly even at the expense of gold, a more traditional safe-haven bet, according to CNBC.Traders are also still celebrating the successful “fork” earlier this month of the underlying blockchain, or transaction ledger, that helps bitcoin function as a store of value.Bitcoin surged through the $4,000 mark over the weekend and continued setting new records on Monday, peaking just above $4,300, according to the research site CoinDesk.
The bitcoin market has also hit several other milestones during the recent rally, including:
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- The total market cap of bitcoins in circulation is now just shy of PayPal Holdings’ market cap as a public company, at $71 billion, according to the news site CoinTelegraph.
- The popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced on Thursday that it had closed a $100 million investment round to expand its operations.
- Over the last 12 months, the price of a bitcoin has risen almost eightfold. Just since the start of 2017, it’s more than quadrupled.