Bitcoin Trades Again Near Record, Driven by New Group of Buyers – The Wall Street Journal

Bitcoin climbed back above $18,000 last week to flirt with record levels, a spectacular rally driven by a new group of buyers seeking the opportunity for big profits.

The digital currency traded as high as $18,965 on Friday, according to CoinDesk, about 4% below its all-time high of $19,783 set in December 2017. It has surged more than 50% in the past month alone.

The rally has attracted a wide cast of characters, from the Wall Street billionaires Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller to momentum investors who aim to ride winning assets higher and losing markets lower.

Their participation, in turn, has fueled more buying, which mirrors a similar dynamic playing out in stocks such as Tesla Inc., which investors keep pushing higher with little regard for fundamentals. As in 2017, when bitcoin became a cultural phenomenon, much of the hype has traveled by word-of-mouth.

Lately, bitcoin has even been a winning topic on sports radio. Gregg Giannotti, co-host of the Boomer & Gio morning sports-talk radio show on WFAN in New York, has been talking up the cryptocurrency on the air after investing $10,000 earlier this month.

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Bitcoin Trades Again Near Record, Driven by New Group of Buyers - The Wall Street Journal