Bitcoin’s price clocked fresh 2020 highs on Wednesday after online payments company PayPal announced support for cryptocurrencies.
- The cryptocurrency was trading at $12,833, a gain of 7.3% in 24 hours, as of 17:00 UTC (1:00 p.m. ET).
- Bitcoin jumped to $12,481 during earlier U.S. trading hours to reach the highest level since July 2019, surpassing the previous 2020 high of $12,476 reached on Aug. 18, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index.
- PayPal launched a new service enabling its customers to buy, hold, and sell bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash and litecoin, directly within the PayPal digital wallet.
- The move is expected to increase cryptocurrency's utility as a funding source for digital commerce at PayPal's 26 million merchants.
- "This PayPal news is the biggest news of the year in crypto. All banks will now be on a race to service crypto. We have crossed the rubicon," large crypto investor Michael Novogratz tweeted.