Bitcoin Hits New All-Time High Above $51,000, Squeezing Altcoins

Bitcoin price (BTC) rally is regaining momentum at press time early Wednesday, with the cryptocurrency hitting a new all-time high of $51,335.23 as per Messari data.

What Happened: The cryptocurrency had crossed the $50,000 late Monday before retreating to as low as $47,787.09.

Bitcoin trading volume over 24 hours is up more than 11% at $78.9 billion.

Altcoins remain muted as Bitcoin extends gains. Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is down 0.57% at $1,798.95. Polkadot (DOT) is down 1.2% to $30.47. Cardano (ADA) is trading about 4% lower at $0.861.

The Graph (GRT), which has extended massive gains over the past week, is down 5% at press time to $2.06. Dogecoin (DOGE) traded 9% lower at $0.0533.

See also: How to Buy Bitcoin (BTC)

Why It Matters: Bitcoin’s dominance of the cryptocurrency market has increased to 62.14% as of press time, after reducing gradually this year from over 70% to about 59.6% last weekend.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) gave a major push to the cryptocurrency market earlier this month with the announcement of the $1.5 billion investment. Microstrategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) on Tuesday announced plans to raise $600 million in a debt offering to fund the purchase of more Bitcoin.

Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) and Square Inc (NYSE: SQ) CEO Jack Dorsey said he was donating 500 BTC alongside rap star Jay-Z to help make Bitcoin “the internet’s currency.”

Stocks of several cryptocurrency-focused companies including Sos Ltd (NYSE: SOS) and Canaan Inc. (NYSE: CAN) surged in tandem with the Bitcoin momentum on Tuesday.