The price of bitcoin continued its surge started a few days ago, passing for the first time in three years the mark of 16,000 dollars. In the afternoon, the most famous virtual currency was trading at 16,177 dollars (14,811 francs during the day) on the Luxembourg trading platform Bitstamp. The record of nearly $ 20,000 recorded at the end of 2017 seems to be within shooting range again.

Since the beginning of October, bitcoin has appreciated by almost half. One of the main drivers of the surge in recent weeks has been the high degree of uncertainty in financial markets in connection with the US presidential election, which has led to an increase in demand for the world's first cryptocurrency.

Analyst David Iusow of IG Group, however, noted the divergent evolution of gold and bitcoin prices. While the two asset classes have often shown similar dynamics in the past, they have moved in opposite directions over the past week. While the price of the yellow metal has come under pressure with the prospect of an effective vaccine against the coronavirus, bitcoin has continued to rise, which tends to prove its greater correlation with the stock market than with the price of gold, according to the expert of the broker francfortois.

Recently, the growing interest of institutional investors has given bitcoin a boost. The fact that the PayPal payment service is willing to accept digital currency as a means of payment is also seen as a powerful upside factor.