Cryptocurrency fever revived in Korea after lengthy lull on increasing offshore mainstream employment of the virtual coin.

The bitcoin price has doubled over the recent two months, surpassing the fresh yearly high of 8.6 million won ($7,300) on Sunday. It is the highest level since the end of July last year.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency jumped more than 1 million won to top 8.6 million won on Sunday just less than a day after the price hovered in the range of 7.4 to 7.5 million won on Seoul-based Upbit exchange on Saturday.

Bitcoin stayed in the 4 million-won range until the end of March and began to rise at a galloping pace from April, hitting 5.9 million won in the first week of the month.

The continuous climb came in the wake of favorable sentiment on news that big global companies and organizations joined to put money into the cryptocurrency. Facebook is working on a project to build a cryptocurrency-based payment system, the Wall Street Journal reported on May 3. The social media giant also rolled back its advertising ban on companies promoting products and services relating to crypto on its platform.

Bloomberg last week reported Fidelity Investments, a Boston-based asset management firm, will add bitcoin trading to its list of institutional investment services, raising hopes that a full-fledged bitcoin adoption as a digital asset is underway.

Still, there are uncertainty factors in the global crypto market due to a series of hacking and security incidents. More recently, Binance, the world`s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said $41 million worth of bitcoin was stolen in hacking attacks, making it the sixth largest hack in crypto exchange history.

By Kim Kang-rae and Minu Kim

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]