Bitcoin Breaches $41,000 Mark In Unfazed Rally

Bitcoin breached the $41,000 mark early Friday morning (New York time) in an unfazed rally that is seeing the world's apex cryptocurrency hit a new all-time high every day. At last check, Bitcoin traded at $41,415.89, up 11.1% over a 24-hour period.

What Happened: Among other cryptocurrencies, Ethereum (ETH), which has surged 71.24% over a week, traded at $1,263.92 at press time.

XRP, which is troubled by a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission probe, has recovered 13.4% over 24-hours to trade at $0.34. The cryptocurrency backing the Ripple payment protocol has recovered its fourth spot in the cryptocurrency market with a valuation of $15.37 billion.

Why It Matters: Data indicates that even as Bitcoin hits new all-time highs, "whales — " as investors holding large amounts of Bitcoin are referred to — are continuing to hold on to the asset.

SPAC king and Chairman of Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc SPCE Chamath Palihapitiya earlier on Thursday told CNBC that while he can't pin a timeline, Bitcoin is headed to $100,000, $150,000, and $200,000.

With a market valuation of around $760 billion, Bitcoin is now engaged in a battle with Tesla Inc. TSLA and Facebook Inc. FB, which have a market valuation of $773.5 billion and $765.4 billion ahead of Friday's market open, respectively.

According to JPMorgan, Bitcoin could hit $146,000 in the long-term. A Citibank analyst in November last year, when Bitcoin traded just below $17,000, gave a much steeper projection of $300,000 — to be hit by the end of 2021.