Explained | Why are so many investors rallying behind bitcoin?

The story so far: Bitcoin, the most popular private cryptocurrency in the world, has been rallying this year, hitting an all-time high of over $66,000 last week. Bitcoin enthusiasts see the rise in the price as a validation of their belief that private cryptocurrencies are a viable alternative to fiat currencies such as the dollar and the rupee. Their core argument is that unlike fiat currencies which are indiscriminately printed by central banks, the limited supply of private cryptocurrencies makes them a lot more valuable. Hence the sceptics of private cryptocurrencies see the meteoric rise in the price of bitcoin as driven by speculative mania rather than by the fundamental value. All such privileges that governments currently enjoy along with their central banks, however, would cease to exist in a world where private currencies actively compete against fiat currencies issued by the state.