Bitcoin at all-time high, value surges past $26,000

Bitcoin, the world's most popular cryptocurrency, has surged past the USD 26,000 level to set an all-time record high, according to trading data.

On Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Bitcoin was trading at USD 26,286.74, as of 20:45 GMT on Saturday.

According to CoinMarketCap, an aggregator that compiles data from more than 20 brokers, Bitcoin was trading at $26,270.96 as of 20:47 GMT, a rise of 7.36 per cent over the preceding 24 hours.

Supply of the digital tokens are capped at a maximum of 21 million which it is expected to reach in 2140, with periodic reductions in the reward for the network of computers that certify transactions. Yet supply dynamics aren’t sufficient to guarantee a long-term future. Many assets have artificially limited supply: Baseball cards, limited print-run art work, and a number of historic Ponzi schemes fall into this category.

What distinguishes the successes is how investors respond to crashes. In most cases, when a vehicle designed purely around the greater-fool theory collapses, it never recovers. There has been no substantial progress made on Bitcoin as a unit of exchange. It’s far from widespread adoption as a currency.