Bitcoin reaches new record high, breaks $9,000
Bitcoin is getting closer and closer to $10,000.
The cryptocurrency hit a record high of $9,033 per bitcoin early Sunday morning. The price rose steadily over the weekend and surpassed $9,000 at around 6:40 a.m. UTC (1:40 a.m. ET), according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index. It now has a market cap of more than $150 billion.
Another digital currency ethereum also hit an all-time high of $485.18 on Saturday but has since dropped to $461.79 on Sunday, according to CoinMarketCap.
Bitcoin had been on an incredible run in the latter half of 2017. It was valued at $1,000 at the beginning of the year and is now closer to reaching the $10,000 mark as we inch toward to 2018. Bitcoin's value surpassed $5,000 and $6,000 in October and then rose over $7,000 and $8,000 in November.
That said, it's too early to tell when the price of Bitcoin will reach that $10,000 milestone because the markets act irrationally and could face a price correction, as The Merkle noted.
Bitcoin was boosted by investor interest around Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping, a digital assets analyst suggested to CNBC.
Indeed, Coinbase, the largest bitcoin exchange in the U.S., added around 100,000 accounts between Wednesday and Friday this week to reach a total of 13.1 million. Coinbase had 4.9 million users this time last year, according to CNBC.
Topics Bitcoin Cryptocurrency
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
