The value of the leading cryptocurrency has exceeded the $44,000 mark. Starting on December 9th, bitcoin has set a new historical high.

Over the past 24 hours, the price of bitcoin has increased by 3.5%, and its market capitalization has exceeded $861 billion. At the same time, the total capitalization of the cryptocurrency market has reached $1.7 trillion. The digital assets in the top 10 by capitalization mostly followed the growth of the first digital coin.

Ryan Selkis, head of Messari, expressed confidence in the further growth of bitcoin and its role as a driving force in the crypto market next year. In his opinion, almost all other digital assets will be inferior to bitcoin in terms of performance.

The analyst also noted that accurately predicting which levels bitcoin will be able to overcome is a difficult task. This depends on various external factors, such as the actions of the Federal Reserve System, trends in stock markets and the state of the American economy.

However, in the long term, all countries are moving towards a digital era in which bitcoin can become a virtual analogue of gold. Selkis even suggested that the value of the main cryptocurrency could exceed $600,000.

He also stressed that gold has many macroeconomic factors that support its value, so there is no guarantee that the price of bitcoin cannot become too high. "1 BTC will always be equal to 1 BTC," the expert noted.

The bitcoin dominance index has also been increasing recently, but is still far from the levels of 2017 and 2021. According to Ryan Selkis, this figure will definitely reach the level of 60%.

The analyst stressed that the first digital currency is currently undergoing a recovery stage and remains an attractive investment asset, despite significant growth last year, amounting to about 150%.