Bitcoin and Ethereum have updated highs, Uber is thinking about paying in BTC – summing up the week

Bitcoin has risen in price after Tesla's announcement of investment in cryptocurrency.

On February 8, Elon Musk invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin through Tesla, making the largest purchase of bitcoins among companies. Against this background, the bitcoin rate updated its historical maximum: for the first time, quotes exceeded $44,000, breaking the previous record of $41,950. The capitalization of the first cryptocurrency also reached a record high of $816.4 billion.

On February 9, the rate exceeded $48,000, and the market capitalization of the first cryptocurrency reached $892 billion with daily trading volumes of about $100 billion. 

On February 11, the Bitcoin exchange rate reached a new high of $48,400, having risen in price by 4% per day. The price increase is explained by the announcements by Mastercard and Bank of New York Mellon about the beginning of work with cryptocurrency assets.

The Mastercard payment system promises to open support for cryptocurrencies for merchants directly, without intermediaries.

The company does not specify which assets will be supported, but it can be understood from the release that we are talking about stablecoins. Cryptocurrencies for cooperation must meet the criteria for the security and confidentiality of user data, strictly follow KYC protocols, laws of jurisdictions, and also have a stable exchange rate. Currently, Mastercard has limited operations with cryptocurrencies; the update will avoid the conversion of cryptocurrencies to fiat and back.

On February 8, the Dogecoin meme cryptocurrency rose in price by 41% ($0.082), setting a new high.

This may be due to the publication of an image with a Shiba Inu breed dog on Twitter of rapper Snoop Dogg. In the publication, the performer noted Elon Musk, to which he published a new meme with a scene from the cartoon "The Lion King". In addition to Elon, there are Snoop Dogg and rock musician Gene Simmons, who recently invested in DOGE.

On February 10, Elon Musk tweeted that he bought Dogecoin for his son and added that now he can be a "hodler" baby. After the announcement, the price of DOGE immediately rose by 18% to $0.081.

On the morning of February 10, the largest altcoin again updated its historical maximum.

The new peak of the Ethereum rate fell at $1,825 with a capitalization of $208 billion. The main reason for the growth by 4.4% per day and 23% in three days is the rise in the price of bitcoin above $48,000. The daily trading volume exceeded $43 billion according to Coingecko.

Short traders traditionally lost $88 million per day due to the liquidation of positions by exchanges.

The capitalization of the cryptocurrency market for the first time surpassed the IT giant Google.

On February 10, the combined figure for all digital currencies was $1.413 trillion on Coinmarketcap, while shares of Google's parent company Alphabet were worth $1.404 trillion on the NASDAQ exchange. Companies like Apple (capitalization of $2.2 trillion), Microsoft ($1.8 trillion) and Amazon ($1.6 trillion) still remain ahead.

In 2015, all Google shares were transferred to Alphabet. There are two asset classes: GOOGL (Class A), whose holders have voting rights, and GOOG (Class C).

Uber is considering accepting payments in bitcoin.

The company says that it will be ready to accept bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies as payment for services, if such a need arises. The new payment method will be of benefit to businesses, passengers and food delivery service users. Keeping part of the reserves in cryptocurrency is not considered by the company.

Since 2019, Uber has been a member of the Libra (Diem) association.