May 24, 2017•Update: May 25, 2017
By Barry Eitel
SAN FRANCISCO
Digital currency bitcoin surged to a new all-time high on Wednesday, leaping to more than $2,460 by afternoon, according to monitoring sites.
Sometimes described as a cryptocurrency, bitcoin, that was created by computer systems, has risen 65 percent in value in the past month and along the way, brok records nearly every day in the past week.
Created by an unknown programmer or group of programmers in 2009, the current surge means $100 worth of bitcoin purchased in July of 2010 is now worth more than $3 million.
Bitcoin’s surge Wednesday was likely caused by an agreement announced earlier in the day between cryptocurrency companies and miners -- programmers who create new bitcoins from algorithms in a decentralized manner.
“We are also committed to the research and development of technical mechanisms to improve signaling in the bitcoin community, as well as to put in place communication tools, in order to more closely coordinate with ecosystem participants in the design, integration, and deployment of safe solutions that increase bitcoin capacity,” according to the agreement released by the Digital Currency Group.
The group said 56 bitcoin companies in 21 countries, as well as 83 percent of all bitcoin miners, signed the agreement aimed at stabilizing the cryptocurrency’s financial ledger protocols.
Bitcoin has also seen a spike of interest in East Asia. On April 1, Japan officially recognized bitcoin as a legal currency.
Some analysts also believe Chinese investors are turning to digital currencies as the yuan has deflated this year.
“Bitcoin up 100 percent in under 2 months,” tweeted DoubleLine Capital CEO Jeffrey Gundlach on Tuesday. “Shanghai down almost 10 percent same timeframe, compared to most global stocks up. Probably not a coincidence!”
Bitcoin, however, is infamously volatile. In late 2013, the digital currency surged past $1,000 for the first time before plummeting to around $400 the following April.
