Bitcoin Closes In on $50K After Setting a Record

After rising 4% in 24 hours, Bitcoin hit a record $49,714.66 on Sunday. It slipped slightly to $48,700 later in the morning, Reuters reports. For the year, Bitcoin has risen nearly 70%. Widespread acceptance of virtual currencies is a main driver of the increase. After long hesitating, financial firms and institutional investors now are supporting use of the cryptocurrency. The run of the past week was sparked when Tesla, which is owned by Elon Musk, made a $1.5 billion investment on Monday. "The institutional side and corporate America is showing that this movement is not going away anytime soon," said a market strategist who doesn't expect a slowdown. "There’s still a raft of big money that's going to jump onto this bandwagon."

The Federal Reserve has helped make Bitcoin a more attractive investment, per CNN. Slashing interest rates to close to zero nearly a year ago has weakened the dollar and sent Bitcoin up. And because there's a finite number of bitcoins, investors figure the price will climb even more when the supply is bought up. In three months, Bitcoin has more than doubled, after reaching $20,000 in December. Still, Anthony Scaramucci, whose Skybridge Capital is heavily invested in Bitcoin, has warned that continuing increases are not guaranteed. "We expect the fund to be volatile, and it could lose money," Scaramucci said last month, per CNN. But overall, his forecast is glowing. "The more likely trajectory is that people can make a monumental amount of money," Scaramucci said, adding: "There is more demand for bitcoin now than supply. The price should go up." (More bitcoin stories.)