Bitcoin reclaims $1 trillion market cap as support for the cryptocurrency builds among major players

Bitcoin reclaims $1 trillion market cap as support for the cryptocurrency builds among major players

Bitcoin hit a $1 trillion market capitalization for the second time early Tuesday as the price of the world's most popular cryptocurrency rallied to a two-week high. 

The cryptocurrency climbed above the $54,000-level early Tuesday as institutional support for bitcoin continues to climb steadily, shrugging off concerns about its volatility. 

"The exuberance that propelled stocks upwards in the past decade appears to be favoring cryptocurrency," said Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Bitfinex. "The interesting thing is that bitcoin was invented against a backdrop of massive stimulus measures that fueled asset prices."

On Monday, Norway's Aker ASA, a $6 billion industrial holding company that controls construction and oil services companies, said that it set up a unit dedicated to investing in bitcoin and blockchain technology. The unit, called Seetee AS, is initially capitalized with around $58.6 million.

"Bit­coin may still go to zero. But it can also become the core of a new monetary ­architecture," Aker ASA chairman Kjell Inge Rokke said in a shareholder letter. Rokke, Norway's second-richest person, also said that bit­coin could one day "be worth mil­lions of dollars."

NYDIG, a provider of bitcoin technology solutions, also announced on Monday that it raised $200 million from investors such Stone Ridge Holdings Group, Morgan Stanley,