Bitcoin is ending 2016 on a high, with its value surging to a three-year high just two days before Christmas.
As the rest of the markets enter a pre-Christmas lull, Bitcoin defied the calm to shoot upwards, with each one now worth $900. The is the closest it’s been for a while to it all-time high of $1,242, reached in 2013.
At the start of 2016, single coins were only worth around $435 but their value has climbed steadily all year.
Experts have attributed the rise to the long-term depreciations of the Chinese Yuan, which has lost 7 percent of its value this year alone. Bitcoin has been a success in China as it allows people to circumvent local laws restricting the trade of money between citizens.
Annual performance
Single bitcoins were worth $435 at the beginning of 2016, but their value has been on a steady upward movement since January.
After crises in China at the beginning of the year, many investors moved to bitcoin as a safe haven, prompting a price increase. Since then the price of a single coin has soared more than 100 percent, on track for its best performance since 2013.
“You’re talking about the eurozone fracturing, you’re talking about the Chinese yuan devaluation, you’re talking about Trump’s curveballs,” said Charles Hayter, founder and CEO of CryptoCompare, a company engaged in bitcoin data and analytics.
It also seems institutional investors are moving into Bitcoin, with trading volume has also increasing steadily over 2016. More than $330 million a day being traded over the summer, and the Bitcoin Investment Trust, launched by Grayscale in 2013, has seen its assets under management more than double from $60 million at the end of 2015 to $139.5 million as of Wednesday.