Bitcoin soars to record high of over $63,000 ahead of impending Coinbase IPO

The price of the world’s most popular digital asset, bitcoin, surged to a new all-time high of $63,191 on Tuesday, just a day before one of the world’s top cryptocurrency exchanges is listed on Nasdaq.

Bitcoin jumped more than 4% on Tuesday morning, according to CoinDesk data. The world’s largest crypto by market cap smashed its own record twice in around an hour, and was trading near $63,000 as of 10:11am GMT.

Other digital currencies also enjoyed gains, with second-largest cryptocurrency ethereum also rising to a new record price of $2,221. Meanwhile Ripple’s XRP jumped over 20% on a 24-hour basis.

Increased appetite for cryptos from investors comes ahead of the long-anticipated direct listing of Coinbase on Nasdaq. The US-based cryptocurrency exchange is set to start trading under the symbol COIN on Wednesday, becoming the first company of its kind to hit the stock market and marking broader acceptance of digital assets by the traditional finance world. Analysts disagree over the company's possible valuation, with forecasts ranging from $19 billion to $230 billion, according to CoinDesk.

Last week, Coinbase reported that its first quarter topped $1 billion as users flocked to the platform amid this year’s enormous crypto rally. Apart from retail investors, cryptocurrencies have gained more support from institutional investors, while some big corporations have decided to invest in them. Online payment giant PayPal became one of the most recent examples, announcing a feature introducing cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. Earlier this year, Elon Musk’s Tesla started accepting bitcoin as payment and announced its huge $1.5 billion investment into the digital currency.

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