Bitcoin surpassed $50.000 over the weekend – for the first time in three months – continuing its recovery journey since mid-July. Last April, the cryptocurrency hit a record high of over $64.000, but its massive sell-off in June and July pushed the price below $30.000. The largest crypto currency in the world is now up 81% since January, when it was trading around $27.000.

 

One of the main reasons for this decline was the adoption of stricter measures by the Chinese authorities, which forced bitcoin mining activities to leave the Asian country. However, since mid-July, bitcoin has been following a steady upward trajectory. In the last few days, two announcements have contributed to its rise.

 

Bitcoin

 

The first announcement came from cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase, which said that it would buy half a billion dollars worth of cryptocurrencies and place 10% of its profits in a cryptocurrency portfolio. The second one was of the electronics giant PayPal which announced that it will start providing cryptocurrency services in its platform in the UK this week. PayPal will enable its customers to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum or Litecoin for just one pound. Users can also monitor cryptocurrency prices in real time and find educational content. PayPal’s move reflects the growing acceptance of cryptocurrencies in a portion of businesses. The US firm has over 403 million active accounts worldwide, and is one of the biggest companies to ever offer access to crypto currencies.

 

Despite regulatory deficits, price volatility, consumer safety concerns and money laundering, large companies such as Mastercard, Tesla and Facebook are embracing digital currencies with increasing fervour. The launch of PayPal’s cryptocurrency service in the United States is, however, coming as regulators become increasingly cautious about the rise of digital currencies.

 

In June, the FCA banned a British subsidiary of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, citing failure to meet money laundering requirements.