Value of cryptocurrency bitcoin climbs 5% to record high of $63,000

Value of cryptocurrency bitcoin climbs 5% to record high of $63,000

The value of the cryptocurrency bitcoin has surged to a record high, reaching $63,000 (£45,800).The cryptocurrency, which has risen in value by 450% in the last six months, continued to climb by a further 5% during trading on Tuesday.Bitcoin's price has more than doubled since the start of 2021. The digital currency has been on a rollercoaster ride in the last year, and was only trading at about $7,000 in April 2020.The smaller, rival cryptocurrency Ethereum also rose on Tuesday, reaching its own record high of $2,205.The fresh records were set just a day before the launch of the US's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, on Wall Street's tech-heavy Nasdaq stock exchange.Coinbase's listing has been viewed by cryptocurrency fans as another sign of its growing mainstream acceptance among investors and financial institutions, and as a means of payment.The price of bitcoin soared towards $60,000 in February amid news of high-profile purchases of the digital currency, including by the electric car company Tesla, run by the billionaire Elon Musk. Tesla announced at the time it had bought $1.5bn in bitcoin and said it might soon accept payments in the currency.Musk, who briefly became the world's richest man before a slump in the