Bitcoin traded as high as $69,200 on Tuesday, briefly setting a new all-time record for the world’s largest cryptocurrency before falling back. The price has surged since U.S. regulators in January approved spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds issued by Wall Street stalwarts including Fidelity and BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. The new wave of capital has resulted in gains of more than 60 per cent since the start of the year and has helped push the flagship crypto token into uncharted territory, passing the record set in November 2021. Within hours of touching the milestone, however, bitcoin had fallen more than 8 per cent to about $62,000. More than $7.5bn worth of capital has flowed into the newly approved bitcoin ETFs since their first day of trading on January 11, according to crypto investment group CoinShares. “The excitement and hype around the ETFs has ended up being far beyond anyone’s expectations,” said Jad Comair, founder of digital asset investor Melanion Capital. Spot bitcoin ETFs give investors the ability to gain direct exposure to the cryptocurrency without the risks associated with largely unregulated crypto exchanges. Bitcoin’s latest record marks a watershed for the cryptocurrency, which traded as low as $16,000 amid a severe market crisis in 2022 and was frequently dismissed by sceptics as a burst bubble that would not recover following the collapse of high-profile crypto companies including FTX. Comair said: “It’s not just a spectacular jump in price, it’s also a paradigm shift for bitcoin. Today, investors that allocate for bitcoin will be five or 10 times more confident than they would have been just a couple of years ago.”
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