No doubt the entire year 2020 was spent amidst the chaos created by the novel Coronavirus. However, there is still one thing that gained popularity besides this pandemic and that is cryptocurrencies. Delivering a return of over 800% during the financial year 2020-2021, the oldest and biggest cryptocurrency in the world, Bitcoin stole the limelight again. This strengthened its repo as digital gold.

Interestingly on 1^st April 2020, the price of the bitcoin was recorded at $6,423.61. But on 13^th March 2021, it was hovering at $58,998.89 during the financial year. For the first time, this favored digital currency topped the $50,000 level on 16^th February 2021. It was nearly a decade post the cryptocurrency hit the $1 mark on 9^th February 2011.

In comparison, the gold was flat whereas the BSE Sensex delivered around 75% returns in the financial year 2020-2021.

The back of retail demand brought the first leg of the rally in bitcoin this year. This was because individuals globally considered the cryptocurrency as a hedging alternative against inflation. However, the next leg of the rally came when bitcoin went mainstream with most of the major institutions supporting the crypto asset.

As of 12^th March 2021, MicroStrategy Inc, a US-based enterprise software company was holding cryptocurrency worth $5.1 billion on its balance sheet. In February, Tesla Inc led by Elon Musk disclosed its $1.5 billion investment in bitcoin. This was another big boost for virtual currency.

Apart from these, companies like BNY Mellon, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, PayPal, MasterCard and Visa have adopted bitcoin into their ecosystem. All the developments are very important because it is backing the crypto-assets and their usage in mainstream adoption.

Meanwhile, Ethereum, the world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency has been slowly but gradually stealing the lion’s share from bitcoin. It has zoomed 1,272.9% over the last year.