The world's most popular cryptocurrency surpassed $8,500 on Saturday at 9:30am GMT, setting another record high. Bitcoin is up over 850 percent this year.
November has been an extremely volatile month for bitcoin. Earlier this month, the digital currency price fell to $5,500 after developers scrapped the SegWit2X update, leading some miners and investors to shift to offshoot bitcoin cash.
However, bitcoin returned to growth on news that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange would start trading futures on the digital currency.
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The cryptocurrencies have also been boosted by interest from institutional investors. Goldman Sachs and Citigroup have said they are researching cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology that underlies them and may add them to their portfolio.
Bitcoin started the year just above $1,000, and the overall growth now is approaching 850 percent. The cryptocurrency’s market capitalization has reached $142 billion. That makes bitcoin more valuable than major corporations like Siemens, Mastercard, British American Tobacco or McDonald’s.
