The big picture: Bitcoin is in uncharted territory. Now more than ever, its future hinges on what happens next. On one hand, it’s not as far-fetched as it once was to imagine crypto going mainstream and becoming a major platform to facilitate the exchange of value and as a legitimate store of value. Skeptics, meanwhile, are concerned that crypto lacks intrinsic value and is a huge bubble that is ripe to burst.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value reached an all-time high today after flirting with the milestone for the better part of the past week.

Bitcoin briefly passed the $50,000 mark on Tuesday morning. According to data from CoinDesk , Bitcoin’s value topped out at $50,480.77 around 6:30 a.m. Central before dipping back slightly. As of writing, a single coin is trading for $49.429.70.

The milestone is largely psychological as Bitcoin’s value has hovered near the $50K mark for several days now.

Bitcoin’s latest rally was sparked by a $1.5 billion investment in the cryptocurrency from Tesla , which was revealed in an SEC filing on February 8. We’ve since seen heightened interest from other large companies and financial institutions including Twitter and Mastercard . Uber is also considering accepting Bitcoin for services rendered but isn’t interested in using its own money to buy assets.

Images courtesy Visual Generation , Wit Olszewski