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Physical imitations of Bitcoins are pictured at a cryptocurrency exchange near the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul on October 20, 2021.
New York CNN –
Bitcoin rose to its all-time high Monday, It shakes off a more than two-year rut that calls into question the future of the entire crypto ecosystem.
Bitcoin, the world's first and by far largest digital currency, traded at $68,791, leading the way The previous record of $68,789 was reached on November 10, 2021.
In recent months, Bitcoin's rally has been accelerated by U.S. regulators' approval of exchange-traded funds tied to the digital asset, creating incentive for more traditional investors to add Bitcoin to their portfolios.
That approval required years of lobbying by crypto firms and was reluctantly granted by the Securities and Exchange Commission after a court ruled that the regulator's reasons for rejecting Bitcoin ETF applications were “arbitrary and capricious.”
The first 11 “spot” Bitcoin ETFs – which track the asset’s market price in real time – launched in January.
After just one month, the ETFs had driven more than $4.2 billion in net new inflows, according to Bloomberg.
ETFs are investment vehicles that represent a basket of assets but trade like a stock. Part of the appeal of a Bitcoin ETF is that investors can invest in Bitcoin through their usual brokerage firm, rather than having to set up a digital wallet through a cryptocurrency exchange.
Bitcoin is an indicator of the broader $2 trillion crypto industry, whose reputation has been tarnished by a series of negative headlines: high-profile exchange and lender bankruptcies, volatile price swings and the criminal prosecution of crypto star Sam Bankman-Fried in November was convicted of stealing billions of dollars from customers on his FTX exchange, which collapsed in late 2022.
Bitcoin, which accounts for more than half of all cryptos in circulation, is up more than 200% in the last 12 months, according to CoinMarketCap.
The Bitcoin rally has also been fueled by crypto believers who are expecting even bigger gains following an event known as a “halving” this spring. Roughly every four years, the number of Bitcoins in circulation halves – a built-in feature of cryptocurrency that is inherently finite. As Bitcoin becomes scarce, its value is expected to rise.