Bitcoin Hits Latest All-Time High of $26,500 in Saturday Night Fever Run

$26k! Bitcoin's got a new all-time high, even higher than this afternoon's all-time high, this morning's, yesterday's and those broadcast in our countless other 'all-time high' articles over the past few months, each of which Decrypt, perhaps out of cynicism, thought could last us for a long time. But on and on Bitcoin goes, ever upward, with poise.

Today, Bitcoin hit $26,557, according to data from metrics site CoinMarketCap. After it limped to $25,000 at the start of the day (UTC), Bitcoin jumped from $24,923 at 2 pm to $25,196 and then spent the rest of the afternoon marching slowly to $26,000. In a burst of energy, traders at about 8:30 pm shunted the price up from $25,948 to $26,557, Bitcoin's new all-time high.

Bitcoin's price is still $26,503, as of this writing. That marks an 8.43% increase in the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin's market cap is currently $490 billion. As Decrypt reported earlier today, Bitcoin has surpassed both Visa and Mastercard in terms of market capitalization.

Why Bitcoin rose to the next $1,000 bracket this evening is anyone's guess. But in recent months, the general consensus is that institutional investors have bought up huge swathes of Bitcoin. MicroStrategy has bought about $1 billion in Bitcoin, MassMutual another $100 million, and SkyBridge Capital $25 million.