Bitcoin tops $60,000 and sets new high over the weekend as Elon Musk aims towards the “moon”

Bitcoin tops $60,000 and sets new high over the weekend as Elon Musk aims towards the “moon”

Bitcoin surged above $60,000 for the first time since March, approaching record highs on Saturday. As of 9:00am eastern time on Sunday, the currency was at $59.604.06 on the Bitstamp exchange. 

The cryptocurrency is up over 700% from a year ago when a single bitcoin was below $7000. This year, bitcoin is up over 100% after a February rally brought the cryptocurrency over $50,000 for the first time.

Early Saturday morning, as the cryptocurrency was floating around its weekend high, Tesla and SpaceX CEO (and Technoking) Elon Musk tweeted "...going to moon very soon," in an apparent reference to popular Bitcoin slang "to the moon."

Musk, a bitcoin booster whose company Tesla purchased $1.5 billion of bitcoin, netting the company more profit than its electric car business, also helms up SpaceX. The company is planning the first civilian space flight to the moon in 2023. 

Earlier this month, the proliferate billionaire tweeter tweeted that the company would "put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon." His latest tweet prompted some speculation that SpaceX may join Tesla in adding cryptocurrency to its balance sheet.

Bitcoin has been stuck in the upper $50,000 range after briefly hitting an all-time high of almost $62,000 in mid-March.

Reuters spoke to