Fuelled by preliminary acceptance on Wall Street and enthusiasm in Silicon Valley, the cryptocurrency has risen by about 72% in the first two months of this year.

Bitcoin has rallied on increasing hopes of rapid economic recovery that have helped lift global markets to record levels. Optimism surrounding the speed of COVID-19 vaccinations and expectations of a swift recovery continue to boost equities worldwide.

The MSCI All Country World Index, which measures stock market performance in 50 developed and emerging countries, was on its longest positive streak in 17 years as it rose for a 12th consecutive session.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at a new high with a gain of 0.2% to 31,522.75, its eighth record of the year to date. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% to 3,932.59. In London, the FTSE 100 fell 7.25 points, or 0.1%, to 6,748.86.

Emerging in 2008, Bitcoin emerged as strings of computer code with no physical form by a secretive software developer using the name Satoshi Nakamoto.

Trading of the currency, up by more than two thirds since the start of 2021, has been unstable with sharp increases followed by heavy declines. Its value fell by $5,000 on January 4 to about $29,000 before recovering the lost ground. On January 11, it dropped $9,000 to $32,000.

While intended as an alternative currency, bitcoin’s main use has been speculative trading. Supporters of the currency have argued this appears to be on the cusp of changing, however, thanks to increasing levels of interest among investors and consumers, The Times reports.

However, policymakers have called for caution. Jim Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, said: “You don’t want to go to a non-uniform with currency where you’re walking into Starbucks and maybe you’ll pay with ethereum, maybe you’ll pay with ripple, maybe you’ll pay with bitcoin, maybe you’ll pay with a dollar. That isn’t how we do this.

Increasingly hopeful fund managers are allocating more of their portfolios to global equities and commodities than at any time in the past decade, according to Bank of America, which polled 225 chief investment officers and portfolio managers responsible for $645 billion of clients’ money. It reported that investor sentiment about the global recovery was at a record high.