CORRECTED-UPDATE 2-Bitcoin rallies above $30,000 for first time

(Corrects paragraph 8 to clarify reference to Coinbase listing)
By Alden Bentley
Jan 2 (Reuters) - Digital currency Bitcoin BTC-BTSP
extended its record-smashing rally on Saturday, beginning the
year with a surge over $30,000 for the first time, with ever
more traders and investors betting that it is on its way to
becoming a mainstream payment method.
The price of the world's most popular cryptocurrency traded
as high as $33,099 on Saturday, with almost all other markets
closed over the first weekend in 2021. It was last up about 12%
at $32,883.
Bitcoin advanced more than 300% in 2020, and with the latest
leg higher has added more than 50% since crossing $20,000 just
two weeks ago.
The blockchain currency has only been around for a decade or
so, and in 2020 it has seen demand grow from larger U.S.
investors, attracted by its perceived inflation-hedging
qualities and potential for quick gains, as well as expectations
it would become a mainstream payments method.
Investors said limited supply of bitcoin - produced by
so-called "mining" computers that validate blocks of
transactions by competing to solve mathematical puzzles - has
helped power upward moves over recent days.
Some also saw it as a safe-haven play during the COVID-19
pandemic, akin to gold.
"It's very likely that the asset will eventually pass
$100,000 per coin," Sergey Nazarov, cofounder of Chainlink, a
global blockchain project, wrote in an email on Saturday.
"People have been steadily losing faith in their government
currencies for years, and the monetary policies resulting from
the economic impact of the coronavirus have only accelerated
this decline."
It trades on numerous exchanges, the largest of which is
Coinbase, which is itself preparing to go public to become the
first major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange to list on Wall Street.
Multiple competitor cryptocurrencies use similar blockchain,
or electronic ledger, technology. Ethereum ETH=BTSP , the
second biggest, gained 465% in 2020 and was up almost 7% on
Saturday.