Bitcoin had a xo market cap of $ 1 trillion as it hit another record high on Friday, resisting analysts' warnings that it was. "Economic performance" and poor hedge against stock prices.The world's most popular digital currency hit an all-time high of $ 56,399.99, with a 14% weekly gain, up nearly 70% this month and an 8% gain at $ 55,664.Bitcoin's profit was boosted by signs it was gaining acceptance from investors and key firms, from Tesla Inc and Mastercard Inc to BNY Mellon.All the digital coins combined have a market capitalization of approximately $ 1.7 trillion.

If you believe the value is actually stored in bitcoin, there are advantages," said John Wu, president of AVA Labs, an open-source platform for building financial applications using blockchain technology.If you look at it, gold has a market cap of $ 9, or $ 10 trillion, even though bitcoin is half the market value of gold. But it's still growing by 4X or $ 200,000, so I don't know when it will stop increasing, ”he added.The next success will overtake Alphabet Inc, which is currently valued at $ 1.431 trillion, said Jacob Skaaning, portfolio manager of crypto hedge fund ARK36.There might be big fluctuations along the way. But I'm still bullish and I believe the uptrend will continue now, ”he said.

Still, many analysts and investors remain skeptical about the highly volatile, regulated digital assets that have little commercial use.JP Morgan analysts said the current price of bitcoin was higher than the estimated fair value. Mainstream adoption enhances bitcoin's relationship with cyclical assets, which rise and fall as the economy changes, on the other hand, reducing the benefit of diversification into crypto, investment banks said in a note.Crypto assets remain the lowest in major equity hedging, with the benefit of questionable diversification at prices higher than production costs. With cyclical assets increasing as crypto ownership is mainstream, ”said JP Morgan.

Bitcoin is an "economic show," it adds, calling for innovation in financial technology and the growth of digital platforms towards credit and payments. "The real financial transformation story of the COVID-19 era Other investors this week said bitcoin's volatility was a barrier to becoming a ubiquitous payment method.On Thursday, Tesla's head Elon Musk, whose tweets fueled the bitcoin rally, said digital coin ownership was slightly better than holding cash. He also defended Tesla's recent $ 1.5 billion purchase of bitcoin, which sparked a major interest in the cryptocurrency.Graphic: Cryptocurrencies It rallied several times from the lows in March.Proponents of Bitcoin argue that the digital currency is a "digital gold" that can hedge against inflation caused by large central banks and government stimulus measures designed to counter COVID-19.

However, bitcoin has to be raised to $ 146,000 over the long term for its market value to equal all private equity investments in gold through exchange-traded funds or bullion and coins, according to JP Morgan.Competitor cryptocurrency ether also hit an all-time high of $ 1,974.99 on Friday and was up 1.2 percent at $ 1,961.32 after futures launched on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.Bitcoin's rise to crypto-related stocks, such as Silvergate Capital Corp, rose 8.2 percent, cryptocurrency miner Riot Blockchain, 13.5 percent, and Marathon Patent Group, up 7.3 percent.Overstock.com stock Online retailers and blockchain tech investors rose 4.1 percent, while MicroStrategy Inc, bitcoin buyer and business intelligence software company, advanced 4.1 percent.Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfus in New York and Tom Wilson in London. Compiled by Dan Grebler, Jonathan Oatis, and Diane Craft.