By Ovunc Kutlu
ANKARA (AA) - Bitcoin went above the $50,000 mark Tuesday for the first time, giving it a market capitalization of nearly $925 billion.
It passed $50,000 at 7.30 a.m. EDT (1230GMT) before retreating to $49,400 with a sell-off.
The world's biggest coin market value saw its price rise 72.8% since Jan. 1, when it was $28,933. It had increased 593% since the beginning of 2020 when it was just $7,208.
The recent price surge looks different than a rally in 2017 when Bitcoin hit $20,000 before plummeting 80% the following year when most investors saw it as a bubble.
The latest feat comes as major US companies have recently announced shifting assets to Bitcoin to diversify portfolios and warm to cryptocurrencies.
Online payment provider PayPal announced in October that it would allow customers to use cryptocurrencies to shop at 26 million merchants on its network.
Mastercard announced on Feb. 10 it would start supporting some cryptocurrencies on its payment network and electric carmaker Tesla said on Feb. 8 that it bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and will begin accepting it as payment for its products.
CEO Elon Musk, the world's richest person, began supporting the virtual coin last month after writing "Bitcoin" on his Twitter profile page on Dec. 29 when the price suddenly climbed above $38,000.
Apart from small retail investors, large Wall Street investment banking firms also plan to buy or invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.