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[뉴욕=이데일리 김정남 특파원] The price of bitcoin, the number one virtual asset market capitalization, surpassed $50,000 for the first time ever. The price is over 55 million won per piece. After the news of the U.S. electric car maker Tesla’s bitcoin investment was announced, major financial companies such as Morgan Stanley, New York Melon Bank (BNY Melon), and MasterCard have set fire to a bull market.
This is due to the good news that bitcoin is at an inflection point where it is not a speculative product such as a gambling board, but an asset with wide utilization. In addition, there are many observations that these days, the liquidity market can be added to continue the strength. However, it is pointed out at the same time that the volatility of bitcoin is so great that attention needs to be paid to investment.
Bitcoin surpassed 55 million won at once
According to CoinMarketCap, a virtual asset market relay site on the 16th (local time), the price of bitcoin is trading at $4,9466 (about 54.5 million won) per piece as of 10:20 am on the day. As of the last 24 hours, the intraday was $5341. This is the first time since it first appeared in 2009 that the price of Bitcoin has exceeded $50,000. The intraday market cap increased to 937.8 billion dollars (about 13.35 trillion won). The Bitcoin market cap of $1 trillion is approaching.
Bitcoin is a combination of bit, which is a digital unit, and coin, which means coin. It was first developed in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, a programmer with a pseudonym, with the idea of creating a new currency that will replace the existing legal tenders such as dollar, euro, and yen. Bitcoin received more attention as concerns over the dollar depreciation increased after the US began to fully qualify due to the global financial crisis in 2009.
Contrary to the initial development intention, Bitcoin was far from currency. It was regarded as one of the more volatile products that could see a larger margin than other assets such as stocks. In fact, in mid-March last year, less than a year ago, the price of bitcoin was only about $5,000 per piece, which is a tenth of the current level.
This rally, which even exceeded $50,000, started with Tesla’s announcement. On the 8th, when Tesla announced its plans to use bitcoin to pay for its electric cars, the price from less than $40,000 suddenly jumped to the mid-to-late range of $40,000. At that time, many views were viewed as a temporary surge caused by the Tesla effect. Elon Musk, who leads Tesla, is well known as a Bitcoin advocate.
However, starting with Tesla, the atmosphere changed as leading companies announced their position to enter the virtual asset market one after another. On the 11th, right after Tesla’s announcement, MasterCard vice president Raz Damodaran officially announced on his blog that “we will introduce virtual asset payments this year.” Its rival, Visa, has already announced that it will introduce it. On the same day, Twitter mentioned the possibility of offering a bitcoin payment service.
Since then, BNY Mellon, the oldest bank in the United States, has announced that it will provide virtual asset services for its clients this year, and Bloomberg cited multiple sources and reported that Morgan Stanley was considering whether to invest in Bitcoin. “I will make New York City a global bitcoin hub” (his Twitter account) was even mentioned by New York Mayor Andrew Yang, and bitcoin prices continued to rise. In Canada, the Bitcoin Listed Index Fund (ETF) was recently approved by the authorities.
As the situation became like this, there are growing observations that the price stability of bitcoin is much higher than in the past. It is a trend that it will not follow the precedent of soaring close to $20,000 at the end of 2017 and then plunging to the $3,000 range in a few months. Rather, it is highly likely that bitcoin prices will rise further in favor of the risk of rising if you bury money.
Joel Kruger, a strategist at LMAX Digital, a virtual asset analyst, said, “Previously, once the bitcoin price surged, there was a tendency to show a big correction, but now it is not. I did.”
“Already overheating… Investment caution” warning also
However, there are also voices of concern. This is because there are many skeptical views about the possibility of replacing the legal currency supporting the current bull market, that is, the possibility of payment through bitcoin. If bitcoin is one of the many assets companies invest in, the current price is not easy to explain. Since Corona 19, most asset markets have boiled hot, but it is difficult to find institutional investment products that have soared 10 times. The recent increase of more than $10,000 in less than 10 days has raised doubts about speculation.
Chester Spat, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tapper School of Business, said, “Bitcoin has a volatility that is ten times the euro. It is difficult to act as a medium of exchange.” An official from a financial company on Wall Street said, “The current price itself is an indication of how much short-term volatility of Bitcoin is.” It is read to mean that investors need attention in the overheating phase.
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