The price of bitcoin continued its meteoric rise Sunday, crossing the $4,000 mark for the first time. <\/p>\n
After cresting as high as $4,200 earlier in the day, bitcoin BTCUSD, -0.62% was at $4,078.08 at 5 p.m. Eastern, up 4.1% for the day, according to Coindesk.com. The price of bitcoin is up more than 40% in August, and more than 280% this year. <\/p>\n
It first passed the $2,000 mark in May, and topped $3,000 for the first time in June. Bitcoin has surged to a number of new records in the past two weeks, since the digital currency split and created a new currency, Bitcoin Cash. <\/p>\n
Read: Confused about bitcoin? 10 things you need to know <\/p>\n
The value of cryptocurrencies overall has gained $11 billion in market cap in just the past two days, according to Coinmarketcap.com, topping out Sunday at a record $137 billion. Bitcoins share of that is more than $66 billion, another record. <\/p>\n
Asian investors were responsible for much of bitcoins weekend gains, as investors sought safe havens as tensions between the U.S. and North Korea heat up. The Japanese yen was behind about 46% of Sundays global bitcoin trade volume, according to Cryptocompare.com. South Korea and China each made up about 12% of global volume. <\/p>\n
Bitcoins weekend gains came at the expense of its rival digital currencies. Ethereums ether was down nearly 5% to $295.42 on Sunday, according to Coindesk.com, Ripple declined almost 4% and Bitcoin Cash slipped 4.3%. <\/p>\n
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Bitcoin surges past $4000, sets more records - MarketWatch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The price of bitcoin continued its meteoric rise Sunday, crossing the $4,000 mark for the first time. Continue reading