Bitcoin briefly breaks the $50,000 barrier as Coinbase’s direct listing looms – TechCrunch

The hodl-crew are having quite the moment as bitcoin passed the $50,000 mark earlier today for the first time. Data pegs the peak at just over $50,500.

The price of bitcoin, the world’s best-known cryptocurrency, has historically proven a reasonable proxy for consumer interest in the cryptocurrency space, and for trading activity amongst blockchain-based assets. Bitcoin’s price has retreated since the milestone, and is now worth just over $49,000.

Bitcoin has been on a tear this year, rising from around the $30,000 mark at the start of 2021 to its recent $50,000 milestone, a gain or around 66%. Looking back a year and the gains are even more impressive, with the price of bitcoin rising from around $10,000 a year ago to its current price, a gain of 400%.

Luckily for investors and believers in other decentralized tokens, it’s not just bitcoin that is enjoying a valuation updraft. Cardano, one of the most highly-valued blockchain assets, is up around 28% in the last week according to CoinMarketCap. Its total value is nearing the $8 billion mark.

Companies built atop the burgeoning cryptocurrency space could be enjoying a boom as the price of bitcoin advances; as trading activity and consumer interest tend to rise along with the price of bitcoin, and companies like Coinbase make money from trading activity and consumer use, 2021 is starting off strongly.

Coinbase has filed to go public, and intends to pursue a direct listing in short order.

What’s driving the price of bitcoin and its sister-tokens up in the short-term? In a market melt-up its hard to point fingers with any accuracy. But broadly speaking if it feels that nearly every asset class is setting new all-time records, so why not bitcoin as well?