Bitcoin climbed past $19,000 Tuesday as the world’s best-known cryptocurrency continues its 2020 surge.
The price of bitcoin was trading about 4.25% higher for the session at $19,207, according to data from industry site CoinDesk.
It is now creeping up toward the all-time high of $19,783 which it posted in a December 2017 rally that saw the values of several cryptocurrencies surge. After hitting that milestone, the bubble burst and bitcoin plummeted to as low as $3,122 the following year.
But many crypto fans claim things are different this time. They’ve cheered big moves in the industry from the likes of Fidelity Investments, Square and PayPal.
PayPal recently started letting its users buy, hold and sell virtual currencies. The payments giant is set to enable shopping with crypto early next year.
Bitcoin climbed past $15,000 on Nov. 5 and $18,000 on Nov. 19. Bitcoin’s market value — which is calculated by multiplying the total number of bitcoins in circulation by the price — now stands at $355.9 billion, higher than the $331.8 billion it hit in December 2017, according to CoinDesk.
