Bitcoin surpassed the $20,000 barrier for the first time in history on Wednesday, as cryptocurrency lovers attributed it to increased demand from institutional investors for the world's most popular cryptocurrency.
The world's top cryptocurrency also traded up 5.6 percent, raising its price to about $20,600, according to market data from Coin Metrics, raising its gains so far to more than 180 percent.
Bitcoin was in a state of rupture this year. Analysts say it has received a boost from big-name investors such as Paul Tudor Jones and Stanely Druckenmiller, who have turned their assets into cryptocurrency, and major technology companies such as Square and MicroStrategy have begun to support bitcoin purchases.
"This is the domino effect, as asset managers turn their portfolios into Bitcoin," Charles Heiter, chief data provider for the cryptoCompare, told CNBC.
The latest record high for bitcoin has been reported by many market watchers with a massive rise of nearly $20,000 in 2017. This was followed by a sharp decline the following year when its value fell to nearly $3,000.
Cryptocurrency missionaries claim that the 2020 rise is different from 2017's, because the former is driven by institutional buying, rather than individual-based speculation.
Bitcoin's 12-year history is punctuated by bitter gains and equally sharp declines, and its markets remain very vague compared to traditional assets, such as stocks, or bonds.
This year's rise has led some investors to claim that the price of the cryptocurrency could be five times higher than its current price, reaching $100,000, drawing the attention of skeptics who say it is purely speculative.
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