Bitcoin’s journey this year has been a bittersweet one. After a somewhat shaky start at the beginning of the year, the digital coin looks set to break boundaries now. The biggest cryptocurrency has had a marvelous fourth quarter of the year, reaching a new all-time high (ATH) in 49 days. Bitcoin has achieved over 270% rise in its value since the start of the year, with the digital coin climbing past the $20,000 mark for the first time in its history and tapping above $24,000 on December 19.
As the digital coin continues to make waves, there’s an unusual pour of interest from a not-so-familiar source. It’s no secret that bitcoin adoption is off the roof now as the stigma around it is gradually being broken into pieces. Big players from Wall Street as well as institutional investors are to be diving into cryptocurrencies this year. Bitcoin is gradually turning into a go-to for wealthy personages in the financial scenes as the market recorded an influx of high purchases from these top figures in the world of finance.
According to reports, investors who purchased at least 1,000 bitcoins, with an estimated worth of roughly $23 million had accounts not older than nine months.
In the last three months, this set of people have purchased $11.5 billion worth of bitcoin and have partly been credited with the spike in the bitcoin price this few months. Big names in Wall Street such as Paul Tudor Jones, Bill Miller, and Stanley Druckenmiller have all bought a significant amount of bitcoin this year, as well as endorsing them in the process.
Rick Rieder, the Head of the Fundamental Fixed Income business, and Head of the Global Allocation Investment Team told reporters that Bitcoin is here to stay and offers so many opportunities. Rick oversees assets worth over $1.8 trillion. Ricardo Salinas Pliego, a Mexican media billionaire also revealed recently that he has invested 10% of his liquid assets in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin looks to have bagged mainstream acceptance as affluent investors who once ridiculed the digital coin are now backing down from their words. Visa Inc. and PayPal are all giants in the world of finance who have embraced cryptocurrencies and have rolled out plans enabling its account holders to use cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin has also suddenly become a shield against legitimate inflation for investors and now many more are gearing up and ready to join the bitcoin bandwagon. The current bitcoin bullish run is expected to continue in the coming months and the market could see an unprecedented involvement of multimillion investors.