It has been a wild few months in the world of cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin, ethereum (ether) and dogecoin have all seen new all-time highs, while ripple (XRP) bounced from a market cap of $10 billion to $30bn and back down again in the space of a few weeks amid "pump and dump" claims.
The recent run of good form for bitcoin began back in March, with market analysts attributing its gains to increased interest from institutional investors.
The world's first and largest cryptocurrency rose from below $5,000 to over $40,000 over 10 months, before falling slightly back down again. On Monday, 8 February, it hit a new all-time high after Tesla invested $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency.
Its fixed supply and utility as a store of value have led many to refer to it as "digital gold", having outperformed the traditional safe haven asset by a factor of 10 in 2020.
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