Bitcoin tops $34,000 as rally extends into 2021

While most markets were closed over the first weekend of 2021, an eye-popping rally for Bitcoin (BTC-USD) continued.At the time of writing, Bitcoin is up 14.7% to $34,108.09, with more traders and institutional investors betting on the crypto becoming a mainstream payment method.Putting it in perspective: Bitcoin tripled in value during 2020 and the latest leg higher added more than 50% to its value since crossing $20,000 just two weeks ago."The currency will be on the road to $50,000 probably in the first quarter of 2021," said Antoni Trenchev, managing partner and co-founder of Nexo in London, which bills itself as the world's biggest crypto lender."It's very likely that the asset will eventually pass $100,000 per coin," added Sergey Nazarov, cofounder of Chainlink, a global blockchain project. "People have been steadily losing faith in their government currencies for years, and the monetary policies resulting from the economic impact of the