Bitcoin zooms 15% as Tesla invests $1.5 billion

Bitcoin surged as much as 15 per cent to an all-time high on Monday after electric car maker Tesla said it has invested $1.5 billion, becoming the biggest company yet to back the controversial cryptocurrency.

As Tesla made the disclosure in a regulatory filing, Bitcoin price exceeded $44,000 for the first time. Tesla also said it would begin accepting the digital token as a form of payment for its electric cars.

The announcement came after two weeks in which comments from Chief Executive Elon Musk encouraged small-time investors to buy Bitcoin and meme-based digital currency Dogecoin as well as shares of US video game chain GameStop

In a massive sign of support for the cryptocurrency, which has been criticised by policymakers for facilitating money laundering and fraud, Musk said a week ago in a tweet that Bitcoin was “on the verge” of being more widely accepted among investors. Analysts said the move by Tesla was liable to prove a game changer for the currency.

Dubbed by adversaries as “a mother of all bubbles” Bitcoin’s dizzying rally over the past two months to a record has been marked with big swings that continue to stoke uncertainty about its outlook. Some of its biggest critics including Warren Buffett derided the digital currency as “probably rat poison squared. Economists Dr Nouriel Roubini and former White House chief economic advisor Gary Cohn had described it as an asset class with “no intrinsic value, not backed by any asset, and not a legal tender.