The price of bitcoin (BTC) crossed $29,000 Wednesday evening for the first time ever, pushing further into record territory after hitting what had been an all-time high earlier in the day.
Bitcoin’s potential for quick gains, as well as expectations it could become a mainstream payment method, has attracted demand from larger U.S. investors, as well as from traders who normally stick to equities.
“You can buy a stock like Amazon, you can buy a stock like Apple, and you know what you got,” said Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC. “Bitcoin you really just have digits on a screen and you’re really hoping that the guy behind you sees it as being worth more than what you just paid for it, so it’s a purely speculative view,” he said.
Recent gains have taken bitcoin’s market capitalization past $536 billion, according to industry website CoinMarketCap.
