After a three-year-long bear market, Bitcoin is in a meteoric uptrend again. Fueled by concerns over the long-term viability of the current monetary system, an increase in money printing and stimulus checks, it has risen to new record highs.

News about Bitcoin has been in all the news lately and with good reason. It recently reached a high of $41,940, and stock markets have warned traders that due to high demand and limited supply, they may not be able to fulfill all purchase orders.

2020 has been an amazing year for all long-term Bitcoin holders as well as everyone who bought into it before the start of the December bull run. The BTC price drastically accelerated from mid-December, breaking the previous all-time high of $20,000 which was a significant resistance level.

In general, Bitcoin's performance in 2020 was quite spectacular. The BTC price has more than doubled within a month and we’ve seen the asset hit a new all-time high of $41,940 after which its rise was interrupted by a drastic sell-off.

The price plummeted to around $31,000 (12/01/2021) in a matter of days, losing 26% of its value and wiping off $150bn from the entire cryptocurrency market. A quick recovery followed and BTC is again testing the $40,000 (14/01/2021) levels. Bitcoin price at the time of writing this article is $34,272.
 

Was this an absolute highlight or will Bitcoin return to an upward trajectory?

Large institutions think that a real upward trend has yet to happen. Strategists JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S. and the seventh-largest bank in the world, announced on January 5 that Bitcoin could reach $146,000 in the long run and could begin to threaten the position of gold as the main means of protecting against inflation.

Compared to gold, Bitcoin offers many benefits as a means of storing capital because it can be easily traded, transported and much easier to verify authenticity.

Commenting on whether Bitcoin is overvalued, former U.S. Treasury Secretary L. H. Summers, Ph.D., said digital money is “here to stay”. Summers shared his views during an interview on Bloomberg television. Mr. Summers is a prominent figure in the economic and financial world and is a professor at Harvard University.