In brief: Bitcoin has reached a new all-time high, eclipsing the $60,000 mark for the first time in its 12-year history. The digital currency crested right at $58,000 on February 21 before sliding to a recent low of $43,500 a week later. Since then, it's been mostly onward and upward, with only a few setbacks along the way.
According to CoinDesk, the milestone took place around 6:30 am Central on March 13 when the value of a single Bitcoin peaked at $60,322.60. Prices have dipped slightly since that time, and currently sit around $59,975 per as of this writing.
The world's top cryptocurrency by market cap has been red hot since late last year and it's anyone's guess as to where things are heading next.
Institutional interest has picked up substantially in 2021 with companies like Mastercard pledging to support crypto this year. Big banks are also getting in on the crypto craze, as are tech companies like PayPal, Tesla and Twitter. Business intelligence firms such as MicroStrategy are investing heavily as well, and we can't ignore the fact that NFT mania is now in full swing.
Something else worth considering is that a third round of stimulus checks will begin hitting the bank accounts of Americans starting this weekend. Could some of that money end up being pumped into crypto?