Bitcoin prices are at all-time high following Elon Musk’s announcement to invest in the cryptocurrency.
As per details, Bitcoin prices have risen by 22 % after Elon Musk – Tesla and SpaceX founder and chief, announced to invest US$ 1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency.
The 22 % increase is Bitcoin prices has boosted the cryptocurrency to an all-time high of US$ 47,787 per Bitcoin.
Following Elon Musk’s announcement, Tesla also released a statement saying that the company will be accepting payments for its high-end vehicles in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin (₿) is a cryptocurrency invented in 2008 by an unknown person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto. The currency began use in 2009 when its implementation was released as open-source software.
Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, without a central bank or single administrator, that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries.
Transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain. Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining.
They can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services. Research produced by the University of Cambridge estimated that in 2017, there were 2.9 to 5.8 million unique users using a cryptocurrency wallet, most of them using bitcoin.
In August 2020, MicroStrategy invested $250 million in bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset. In October 2020, Square, Inc. put approximately 1% of their total assets ($50 million) in bitcoin. In November 2020, PayPal announced that all users in the US could buy, hold, or sell bitcoin using PayPal.
In December 2020 Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company announced it has purchased $100 million in bitcoin, or roughly 0.04% of its general investment account.
Bitcoin is a digital asset designed to work in peer-to-peer transactions as a currency. The overwhelming majority of bitcoin transactions take place on a cryptocurrency exchange, rather than being used in transactions with merchants.