Bitcoin price hits record high above $US63,000 ahead of Coinbase IPO

Bitcoin has surged to a new record high as a cryptocurrency exchange looks to list on Wall Street at a valuation of $130 billion.

The price of bitcoin climbed to a new record high above $US63,000 ($83,000) Tuesday as the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase prepares to go public this week.

The world’s largest and oldest digital coin hit an all-time peak, according to CoinDesk, surpassing the previous record of $US61,742 ($80,725) it hit last month.

It increased by 5.5 per cent from a day earlier and roughly 116 per cent for the year so far, CoinDesk data show.

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, also hit a new record high of $US2266 ($2962) on Tuesday, CoinDesk says.

Bitcoin has been on a tear over the past six months, but the latest rally came a day before Coinbase – the US’ largest cryptocurrency exchange – was set to start trading on the Nasdaq.

RELATED: Bitcoin slammed as ‘Chinese financial weapon’

Publicly traded firms such as Tesla and Twitter have added bitcoin to their corporate balance sheets. Picture: Ozan Kose/AFP

The company’s direct listing slated for Wednesday – which could give it a valuation as high as $US100 billion ($130 billion), according to CNBC – “signifies an endorsement and acceptance of bitcoin by the broader Wall Street community”, said Anthony Denier, chief executive of the trading platform Webull.

“The Coinbase IPO is a seminal moment for the digital assets industry,” said Pete Cheyne, founder of Bottlepay, a bitcoin-based payments app. “From tomorrow, there is an exchange tradeable instrument for (asset managers) to participate in this paradigm change, and this is having a big impact on Bitcoin’s price.”

The value of the entire cryptocurrency market recently topped $US2 trillion for the first time amid other signals that big companies were embracing cryptocurrency.

Publicly traded firms such as Tesla and Twitter have added bitcoin to their corporate balance sheets, while MasterCard, Visa and PayPal have pledged to make it easier to use cryptocurrency as a form of payment.

And banking giants Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are reportedly planning to offer their wealthy clients investment exposure to bitcoin and other digital currencies.

But there have also been warnings around scams related to cryptocurrencies, and prices are volatile.

This story originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permission