Bitcoin on Friday morning soared by more than $500, crossing $5,800 for the first time and putting in a record high of $5,866 a coin, according to Bloomberg data. The cryptocurrency has since pared its gains, but it still trades up 3.92% at $5,626 a coin.
Friday’s advance comes after Coinbase, a digital currency exchange, announced that customers could instantly purchase bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies using a US bank account. Those customers previously had to wait several days before receiving their digital currency.
It has been a monster week for bitcoin, which has soared nearly 30% since last Friday’s close. It blew through the highly anticipated $5,000 level on Thursday, just days after The Wall Street Journal reported that Goldman Sachs was looking into setting up a bitcoin trading operation, and Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said the cryptocurrency was “certainly more than just a fad.”
But things didn’t look too promising in September. News of a crackdown on trading in China and regulatory uncertainty around initial coin offerings, a cryptocurrency-based fundraising method, pushed the cryptocurrency to a low of $2,900 a coin on September 15.
Neil Wilson, a senior analyst at ETX Capital, told Business Insider on Thursday that “bulls returned to the market with a vengeance.”
Bitcoin is up about 476% this year.
