(Photo/Shanghai Daily)
The price of Bitcoin surpassed 5,000 yuan ($739) in the first trading day of November, hitting a high in four months, the Bitcoin trading platform said yesterday.
The price of Bitcoin, a form of digital currency created and held electronically, surged above 20 percent in the past month and hit a daily high of 5,025 yuan yesterday afternoon. But the price was still way below the 8,000 yuan peak in 2013, industry officials said.
Transactions totaled 11 billion yuan yesterday, double the 5 billion yuan on a normal day, said Huobi.com, one of the Chinese Bitcoin trading platforms.
The yuan's depreciation and uncertainty of the global environment, especially U.S. political changes, have pushed investors to Bitcoin, said Zhu Jiawei, chief operating officer of Huobi.
The lack of better investment channels in China has also made Bitcoin an attractive investment option, analysts said.
Bitcoin, seen as another investment option for investors, is produced by people and businesses running computers globally, using software that solves mathematical problems.
China takes up 80 percent of Bitcoin trading worldwide and over 70 percent of Bitcoin output globally, said a recent report.