Bitcoin broke through the $20,000 level for the first time yesterday, with a gain of 9.3 per cent to $21,239.58, The Times reports.
The cryptocurrency has gained more than 170 per cent in value this year, boosted by demand from larger investors attracted to its potential for quick profits and expectations that it will become a mainstream payment method.
Last month Ruffer Investment Management, a UK asset manager with more than £20 billion of funds, made a bet on bitcoin now worth about £550 million, in one of the largest signals of rising institutional interest in the digital currency this year, according to the Reuters news agency.
