Bitcoin’s price has surged past $50,000 for the first time in the last three months after it crashed in May. The world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency currently stands at $50,297.19 with a return of 72.3 percent year to date, according to CoinDesk.
Bitcoin had started tumbling in May after touching an all-time high of nearly $64,000 in April. China’s ban on financial institutions and payment companies providing services related to cryptocurrency transactions and warning against speculative crypto trading was one of the key reasons that had triggered the downfall.
Rival currency Ether was trading 3.43 percent higher at $3,342 at the time of writing this story. The currency based on the Ethereum blockchain has a return of over 348 percent year to date.
Meanwhile, PayPal UK said it will allow customers in the UK to buy, sell and hold bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies starting this week, the company said on Monday.
The roll-out, which marks the first international expansion of PayPal’s cryptocurrencies services outside of the United States, could inspire further mainstream adoption of the new asset class.
With over 403 million active accounts globally, the San Jose, California-based company is one of the largest mainstream financial companies to offer consumers access to cryptocurrencies.
Furthermore, the worldwide adoption of cryptocurrency has grown by over 2,300 percent since the third quarter of 2019 and over 881 percent in the last year.
All five leading nations in terms of bitcoin ownership are located in Asia. Bitcoin (16 percent) is the most popular coin, followed by Ethereum and Bitcoin cash (6 percent) and Ripple (8 percent). While men (32 percent) take precedence over women (23 percent) in terms of possession, young adults (32 percent) aged between 18-24 when it comes to cryptocurrency ownership.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Technology Express staff and is published from a syndicated fee)
