Bitcoin tops $34,000 as record breaking rally resumes financial times

1. 1/4/2021 Bitcoin tops $34,000 as record-breaking rally resumes | Financial Times
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Some well-known investors are backing Bitcoin © REUTERS
Ian Smith in London YESTERDAY
Bitcoin climbed above $34,000 for the first time on Sunday, extending a record-
breaking rally in the volatile cryptocurrency that delivered a more than 300 per cent
gain last year.
With trading in key financial markets yet to commence in 2021, bitcoin has resumed
its dizzying ascent, rising more than 10 per cent in the first few days of January. By
late afternoon in London on Sunday, it had given up some of its early gains to dip just
below $33,000.
“Even the most bullish of bitcoin advocates could not have foreseen such a meteoric
rise in price in such a short space of time,” said Marcus Swanepoel, chief executive of
Luno, a London-based cryptocurrency platform. History suggests a small pullback
could follow, he added.
“But the pattern we’ve seen in the build up to this milestone — a consistent increase,
rather than one sharp spike — sets bitcoin up extremely well for this year,” Mr
Swanepoel said. He added that “something approaching the $100,000 mark before
the year’s end” was possible.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin tops $34,000 as record-breaking rally resumes
Cryptocurrency picks up year where it left off after rising more than 300% in 2020

2. 1/4/2021 Bitcoin tops $34,000 as record-breaking rally resumes | Financial Times
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The rally has fed concerns that bitcoin is set to repeat the events of three years ago,
when a bull market dramatically collapsed. When the cryptocurrency set a record high
in November, economist Nouriel Roubini called it a “pure speculative asset and
bubble with no fundamental value”.
But some analysts have pointed to an increase in corporate and institutional interest
in bitcoin. Well-known investors such as Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller
have thrown their weight behind it, and crypto-focused hedge funds have outshone
peers.
The recent gains have far outpaced mainstream asset classes. Bitcoin rose 305 per
cent last year, compared with the 16 per cent lift in Wall Street’s blue-chip S&P 500
stock index, and gold’s 25 per cent rally.
Marc Bernegger, a board member at digital asset manager and broker Crypto Finance,
said he would not be surprised to see a “healthy” correction in bitcoin’s price in the
short term. But he is positive over the longer term, due to “massive demand from
professional and non-speculative oriented investors”.

3. 1/4/2021 Bitcoin tops $34,000 as record-breaking rally resumes | Financial Times
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Fundstrat analysts in late December said “the conditions remain in place for a
continued rally”, citing institutional demand and a clearer approach to the sector from
US regulators, as well as the possibility that the latest fiscal stimulus package agreed
by Congress could fuel demand from retail investors.
Bitcoin’s rally has been helped by signs that the cryptocurrency is becoming more
integrated into the financial system. In October, PayPal said US customers would be
given the option of holding bitcoin in their digital wallets. In December, crypto
exchange Coinbase filed with regulators to go public.