Bitcoin Falls From $60,000 High As Investors Show Caution

Bitcoin has dipped in value at the beginning of this week after hitting a record high of over $60,000 ($43,100) over the weekend.

The cryptocurrency topped $60,000 for the first time on Saturday, 13 March, and reached as high as $61,556.59.

It remained in the $60,000 range before dropping to around $55,000 on Monday. Its previous high was $58,356.

The asset has more than tripled in value since the beginning of this year, as several large companies and mainstream organisations have shown increased interest in the virtual currency.

Mainstream interest

The asset’s total value surpassed $1tn in February, after Tesla revealed it had purchased $1.5bn in Bitcoin.

However, some industry watchers said the latest price rise may have been prompted by the approval of a huge US stimulus package last week.

Some investors see Bitcoin as a hedge against the inflationary risk posed by a large influx of capital into the economy.

Mastercard has said it plans to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment, while the Bank of New York Mellon said in February it would hold, transfer and issue bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on behalf of its asset-management clients.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange now provides Bitcoin pricing information, in another move that indicates growing mainstream acceptance.

But Bitcoin remains highly volatile and has undergone several massive price drops during its existence.

Many governments’ central banks have warned against it, and investor Warren Buffett has said it is “probably rat poison squared“.

In January India even laid out an official agenda that could see the country officially banning crypto-assets such as bitcoin.

If the plans come to fruition, India would be the world’s first major economy to make holding cryptocurrencies illegal.