Bitcoin Surges To All-Time High In Crypto's 'Validating Moment'

Bitcoin rallied to a record, topping $66,000 for the first time as optimism surged for greater mainstream acceptance in the wake of the successful launch of the inaugural exchange-traded fund for U.S. investors.

New Delhi: Bitcoin rallied to a record, topping $66,000 for the first time as optimism surged for greater mainstream acceptance in the wake of the successful launch of the inaugural exchange-traded fund for U.S. investors.  

While the historically volatile digital currency spent recent days hovering in a narrow range as it approached its previous April high, the vault past the threshold happened much faster: The price added more than a thousand dollars in a minute just after the open of stock exchanges in the U.S. Big moves tied to significant chart levels have been a common phenomenon in the little more than a decade history of cryptocurrency trading.

“It's a validating moment,” said Jesse Proudman, co-founder and chief executive at Makara, a crypto advisory firm. “It's no longer a question of does this asset class continue to exist -- I think that's a really meaningful mark in the history of the broader digital-asset class.”

Demand for the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF continued to surge, with more than 29 million shares changing hands Wednesday, or more than during the fund's almost record-breaking debut. That's equal to more than $1.2 billion in volume. The first Bitcoin-linked exchange-traded fund listed in the U.S. launched on Tuesday as the second-most heavily traded fund on record.