Bitcoin Rides George Soros Endorsement to $55K

Bitcoin’s price jumped almost 10% Wednesday (Oct. 6) to nearly $55,000 per coin after reports surfaced about billionaire George Soros’ investment firm, Soros Fund Management, buying some of the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency, according to a CNN report.

“I’m not sure bitcoin is viewed only as an inflation hedge here,” Dawn Fitzpatrick, CEO and chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, told CNN in an interview at the Bloomberg Invest Global Summit late Tuesday (Oct. 5). “It’s crossed the chasm to mainstream.”

The value of all bitcoins in circulation is now back above $1 trillion — more than the market value of Facebook — and all cryptocurrencies total $2.3 trillion in circulation, matching Apple’s market value.

El Salvador became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, but billionaire Warren Buffett continues to criticize the digital currency. Soros’ decision to step into the fray paid immediate dividends, but it remains to be seen whether the bump will be long-lasting.

“Investor interest in cryptocurrency and demand from our fund services clients have grown strongly over the last few years,” said Gunjan Kedia, vice chair of U.S. Bank’s wealth management and investment services in a recent news release. “Our fund and institutional custody clients have accelerated their plans to offer cryptocurrency.”

Related: The Crypto-Trading Rodent That’s Beating the Market

Cryptourrency trading isn’t just the domain of humans anymore, though.

Mr. Goxx, a hamster for whom human friends have built a high-tech “Goxx Box” outfitted with special wheels, sensors and tunnels that enable the rodent to buy and sell crypto and other stocks, jumped aboard the crypto trading party in June.

BBC.com recently reported Mr. Goxx “is making money, with his lifetime career performance up about 20% — beating many professional traders and funds.”

“The first month was rough,” the unnamed backers of the crypto-trading hamster told BBC. “Mr. Goxx started on 12 June with [the equivalent of $380], placing an order for Stellar (XLM). One month and 95 orders later, Goxx Capital was down 7.3%. But as of late September, the intrepid trader’s career performance is up 19.41%.”

Of his performance, BBC.com added: “That beats not only the return on major stock markets such as the FTSE 100 or the Dow Jones, but also the performance of investing supremo Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, according to calculations by crypto news site Protos.”