Sliding yuan spurs bitcoin to reach new all-time high

Risk-averse traders, who have given up on the weakening Chinese yuan, have pushed bitcoin to a new all-time high.

Bitcoin’s price reached $1,140.64 on Wednesday, breaking the $1,137 price it hit in November 2013. In December, the popular digital currency also surpassed its all-time high in total market capitalization, and has since surpassed $16.1 billion.

The digital currency, which turned eight years old this year, has been gently appreciating since 2016, thanks to demand from traders in China as well as other parts of the world where traditional currencies are tightly controlled. China, where majority of trading occurs, saw an increase in demand for bitcoin as the pressure on the Chinese yuan weakens. India’s demonetization efforts and recent crackdowns on moving money abroad have also prompted a massive adoption of the cryptoccurency in the country.

Analysts expect the demand for safe haven assets like digital currency to drive bitcoin’s value up in the coming months. After all, traders have been calling bitcoin a “safe haven” asset that shows its strengths as an investment vehicle “in times of macroeconomic uncertainty.”