Bitcoin rose above $6,000 on Thursday, hitting its highest level against the dollar in nearly six months.
The cryptocurrency has been on a roller coaster ride since hitting a record high of over $19,000 in December 2017 before crashing to a low of nearly $3,100 in December 2018. Since then, it has had a slow recovery.
On Thursday, bitcoin hit an intraday high of $6,076.65, the highest level since an intraday high of $6,295.95 on Nov. 15, according to data from CoinDesk, which tracks the price of the cryptocurrency on various exchanges. Bitcoin is up over 60% so far this year.
The price has been bolstered by an increasing interest in bitcoin trading from investment institutions. Fidelity Investments will begin to allow customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, Bloomberg reported earlier this week. Other trading platforms like Robinhood have already started digital currency trading.
But the cryptocurrency trading environment still has its problems. On Tuesday, hackers stole 7,000 bitcoin, worth over $40 million from Binance, one of the world’s largest exchange platforms.
And bitcoin is still prompting fierce debate over its future and viability. Major bitcoin skeptic Nouriel Roubini called crypto the “mother and father of all bubbles” at a conference earlier this week. Roubini was debating with bitcoin bull and former hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz, who had a different point of view.
“The realty is there’s a tremendous amount of stuff going on. In some ways, there’s been a small miracle,” Novogratz said. “The debate is over, bitcoin won. It is now seen by people all around the world as a legitimate place to [store] their value.”
