Bitcoin’s market value crossed the trillion-dollar mark once again Tuesday as the cryptocurrency’s recent rally regained some momentum.
The price of the world’s biggest digital coin climbed about 6.3 percent from a day earlier to $54,274.13 as of 10:44 a.m., giving it a total value of $1.01 trillion, CoinDesk data show.
Bitcoin’s market value previously hovered above $1 trillion from Feb. 19 to 22 before its price tumbled toward the end of last month, according to Coinmarketcap.com.
Tuesday’s rally followed further signals that institutional investors and large corporations are coming around to cryptocurrency.
For instance, the bitcoin-focused investment firm NYDIG announced Monday that it had raised $200 million from a group of investors including Wall Street titans Morgan Stanley, New York Life and billionaire financier George Soros’ Soros Fund Management.
NYDIG also said that insurers now own more than $1 billion worth of bitcoin-related exposure on the company’s platform, a fact that it called “an example of accelerating institutional bitcoin adoption.”
The firm’s announcement came about a month after Tesla revealed it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin, following in the footsteps of smaller companies such as MicroStrategy and Jack Dorsey’s Square.
The electric-car maker’s investment helped send bitcoin to a record high of $58,332.36, but the coin later crashed after billionaire CEO Elon Musk admitted on Twitter that its price seemed too high.
While bitcoin is still trading below last month’s record, its price has climbed nearly 87 percent so far this year amid signs that it’s gaining mainstream traction, according to CoinDesk.
Bitcoin’s popularity has grown thanks to its perceived resistance to inflation and hopes that it will become a more widely used payment method. But skeptics argue that its wild price swings may keep many companies away.