Soaring high: Bitcoin hits record $53,750, $1 trillion market cap

The world’s top cryptocurrency has surged 60 percent this month alone, fuelled in part by mainstream investors like Tesla.

Bitcoin hit yet another record high on Friday, achieving a market capitalisation of $1 trillion and blithely shrugging off analysts’ warnings that it is an “economic sideshow” and a poor hedge against a fall in stock prices. The world’s most popular cryptocurrency jumped to an all-time high of $53,750. It has surged around 60 percent so far this month. Bitcoin’s gains have been fuelled by signs it is winning acceptance among mainstream investors and companies, from Tesla and Mastercard to Band of New York Mellon.