Bitcoin breaks glass ceiling, crosses $51,000 mark

For two days straight, Bitcoin has shown that breaking the $50,000 mark is no longer a hard task, as it matched and surpassed its Tuesday effort today, Wednesday.

The Bitcoin surge continues to prove criticism from Central Banks, like that of Nigeria, wrong.

Ripples Nigeria had reported that Bitcoin valuation rose above the $50,000 mark on Tuesday, when it clocked $50,584.85 before declining to $48,657.21 around 6pm on the same day.

Bitcoin, however, rebounded to break the glass ceiling, landing at $51,735.38 earlier in the day. But it now trades below the valuation, while maintaining its climb above $50,000. The most popular cryptocurrency currently trades at $50,918.04, as at the time of filing this report.

Bitcoin has come a long way from the $1 it traded for in 2009 when it was created by Satoshi Nakamoto, an individual whose real identity is still not known to the public.

READ MORE: Bitcoin fails to maintain surge after hitting $50,000 mark

Within twelve years, bitcoin has gone from $1 to over $50,000 in 2021. The surge in Bitcoin is being driven by deeper penetration into new markets or countries, as more individuals come to terms with its usage, most especially in Nigeria, which is Bitcoin’s second largest market behind the United States.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has criticised its usage, stating that it is used to finance terrorism and other criminal activities. Nigeria’s Central Bank is not alone in the fight against Bitcoin and other digital assets, as countries like China have also spoken against it.

Fight back from financial regulators initially prevented the penetration of Bitcoin, as they moved to block its essence in global trade, but Bitcoin has been able to leap above regulatory restrictions with peer-to-peer feature which allows users to connect without outside interference.

P2P has helped Bitcoin break the glass ceiling, so targeting a wider reach or acceptance is no longer rocket science for cryptocurrency exchanges, as the ban on cryptocurrency platforms in Nigeria haven’t been too effective in stopping cryptocurrency growth due to P2P.

Bitcoin users now offer value in exchange for Bitcoin without tendering Central Bank-backed fiat (naira or $) to complete transaction. Bitcoin now exchanges for cars and other valuable items through P2P.

Companies like Microstrategy and Tesla have invested heavily in Bitcoin by exchanging fiat for Bitcoin in their balance sheet, while Mastercard and Apple have invested to drive the penetration of cryptocurrency even deeper across their markets, allowing their customers to trade with bitcoin and other digital assets – so gunning for the $50,000 mark is no longer rocket science for bitcoin, whose popularity is elevating other cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin and Ethereum among others.

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