San Francisco, February 16: With a sign of acceptance among the mainstream investors, world's largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin surpassed a record high of $50,000 on Tuesday. Bitcoin saw a new high of $50,602 and was hovering at $50,300. This year, Bitcoin rose around 72 per cent after tech billionaire Elon Musk's electric vehicle company Tesla invested $1.5 billion in it.

"Sustained interest from institutions has had a positive impact on Bitcoin's price, pushing it on an upward curve. In December 2020, it touched an all-time high crossing $24,000 in valuation, marking a 224 per cent increase from where it started its journey at the beginning of the year," Sumit Gupta, CEO and Co-founder, CoinDCX, said in a statement.

"By the beginning of 2021, BTC had jumped to a valuation of $40,000. With each passing day, we are seeing it breaking every resistance. In the second week of May 2020, bitcoin witnessed its third halving since its inception, thus bringing a further drop in its estimated future supply," Gupta added. Bitcoin Touches Record High; Cryptocurrency Crosses $50,000 Mark for First Time.

Tesla has said that it will also "begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future". Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment service provider 'BitPay' also announced that its prepaid card now supports Apple Pay for in-store, in-app and online payments.

"Whereas with credible and major institutions like Tesla, MasterCard, Paypal and Microstrategy adopting them into their ecosystem, we are witnessing a continuous rise in demand for bitcoin, thus pushing the valuation higher. In addition, companies such as Google Pay and Samsung Pay too are now contemplating making inroads into cryptocurrency via Bitpay," Gupta said.

The total market capitalisation of Bitcoin at the end of 2020 was $539 billion, compared to the estimates of $12 trillion in above ground gold.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 16, 2021 07:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).