Bitcoin is the spiritual father of digital currencies, as it represents more than 40% of the total market value of all currencies combined.
The importance of this encrypted asset has recently increased due to the rise of companies and investment funds that accept Bitcoin as a payment currency or as a future investment asset, similar to gold and the dollar. For example, the car company Tesla invested over $1.5 billion in Bitcoin at the beginning of 2021, and the same interest was expressed by the electronic payment services company Square and the software company Microstrategy, as well as the investment fund Blackrock, which converted part of its financial assets into Bitcoin.
On the other hand, major banks have started to integrate Bitcoin transactions into their offerings since last summer due to the decision of the American legislator, which allowed banks to legally purchase and hold digital currencies for the benefit of their clients since July 2020. This has raised the level of confidence among investors to resort to buying digital currencies, which until recently had been restricted to a narrow financial and technological elite that preferred to remain in the shadows.
Additionally, the repercussions of the Corona pandemic acted as an indirect factor in accelerating the pace of confidence in digital currencies, including Bitcoin. Evidence of this is the steady increase in its value since March 2020, benefiting from the decline in the value of the dollar and the stability of gold prices.
To remind, when Bitcoin launched in October 2008, its value was $0.001 per coin, while in April 2021, the price of this virtual currency exceeded $60,000, meaning that the value of Bitcoin multiplied by 60 million times over 13 years.