Bitcoin Hits History Record Above $23,000

Bitcoin breached $23,000 for the first time in history as more Wall Street names crowd into the world's largest digital currency up 220% this year.

As momentum builds, analysts predict more gains ahead.

The digital coin jumped more than 9% on Thursday, touching a high of $23,256.92, according to a composite of prices compiled by Bloomberg. Bitcoin and the wider Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index have both more than tripled this year. Cryptocurrency-linked stocks in South Korea, Japan and China climbed.

The rally in digital assets is polarizing opinion, given Bitcoin's history of boom and bust. Proponents argue the cryptocurrency is muscling in on gold as a portfolio diversifier amid dollar weakness and potential inflationary pressure. Others see speculative fervor that will inevitably lead to a bust akin to the meltdown three years ago after a furious Bitcoin rally.

 Yet there are signs that longer term investors like asset managers and family offices are playing more of a role this time around, alongside trend-following funds. Bitcoin's scarcity combined with "rampant money printing" by the Federal Reserve mean the digital token should eventually climb to about $400,000, Scott Minerd, the chief investment officer at Guggenheim Investments, said on Bloomberg TV on Wednesday.

The "price will now go from linear to parabolic" in part because retail investors have so far largely been "out of this rally," said Kay Van-Petersen, global macro strategist at Saxo Capital Markets Pte in Singapore.