The world’s most valuable cryptocurrency traded as high as US$41,756 at 7:26 a.m. eastern time, according to data from Coin Metrics. It was last trading up about 6 percent from a day earlier, at US$41,190.

Bitcoin has extended its 2020 rally — which saw it skyrocket over 300 percent — into the new year. It is currently up over 40 percent so far in 2021, and on track to post its second-best week since the peak of the December 2017 surge.