Is bitcoin’s huge price rise the canary in the global coal mine?

The price of bitcoin has surpassed $50,000 for the first time, as institutional adoption makes it an increasingly mainstream asset. But could its huge price rise presage serious and fundamental changes to the global order?

Elon Musk
Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has bought $1.5bn of bitcoin
(Image credit: © Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images)

The price of bitcoin has surpassed $50,000 for the first time. The cryptocurrency made a new all-time high of $50,487 on Tuesday. It has rallied by 68% since 1 January and has soared tenfold since March last year. Previous bitcoin rallies quickly fell apart as speculative fever ebbed, but investors argue that this one rests on more solid fundamentals, says Ryan Browne for CNBC.

Institutional adoption is making bitcoin a more mainstream asset, with the recent jump triggered in part by Elon Musk’s announcement that Tesla has bought $1.5bn-worth of the digital currency. Mastercard, PayPal and investment bank BNY Mellon are among other big names to have got behind the digital currency of late.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.