Bitcoin price hits US$4,410, up 7 times from a year ago

Bitcoin price hit a new record to top 30,000 yuan (US$4,410) yesterday, seven times compared with the price a year ago.

Bitcoin surpassed 30,000 yuan at about 5:30 pm yesterday, compared with 4,300 yuan a year ago. Over 17 trading days this month, the Bitcoin price has already jumped 58 percent, according to Bitcoin trading platform Huobi.

The global environment and technology upgrade have pushed up the Bitcoin price, said Zhu Jiawei, chief operating officer of Huobi.

Meanwhile, an important technology upgrade will take effect within one or two weeks. The upgrade will help improve trading efficiency, market observers said.

At the start of 2017, the total value of all “cryptocurrencies” in existence was about US$17.5 billion, with Bitcoin making up almost 90 percent of that. It is now around US$120 billion — about the same value as Goldman and RBS put together — and Bitcoin makes up 46 percent, according to industry data firm CoinMarketCap.