The price of a single cryptocurrency and a payment system bitcoin, has passed the $800 mark.
On Wednesday, the U.S. and European buyers were accounting for the bulk trading volume where the price for bitcoin has reached its all time high for the first time in three years.
In 2016, bitcoin prices have been rising steadily. The moment it saw a massive acceleration was after the U.S. election results. Another moment was when Chinese traders who were big bitcoin buyers, searched for protection from the rapid depreciation of the yuan currency which has weakened as the U.S. dollar has strengthened.
Also in the UK, the votes to leave the European Union and perceived risk associated with a string of key European elections in 2017, have made many European investors to embrace bitcoin.
On Wednesday, bitcoin US:BTCUSD traded as high as $822. The majority of trades transacted in the past 24 hours were in U.S. dollars, euros and pounds.
Bitcoin is often used as a hedge against inflation and uncertainty. Bitcoin's move to reach its all time high came as the U.S. dollar, which is the world's most heavily traded currency, is nearing its multiyear highs and Chinese yuan traded at near its weakest level in eight years.
The digital currency is a very volatile asset. But because it's not generally correlated with other markets, it became a currency to invest when other assets fall in value.
Bitcoin's high price has moved its market capitalization to be over the $13 billion mark. What this means, the currency is having a larger market capitalization than some of the world's publicly-traded companies.