LONDON, March 5, 2024 (AFP) – Bitcoin hit a record high above $69,000 Tuesday, buoyed by the world’s biggest cryptocurrency becoming more accessible for trading amid tightening supplies.
Bitcoin reached $69,191.94, beating a record $68,991 struck in November 2021.
The volatile asset later retreated to $67,442.
Bitcoin has enjoyed an unbridled rise since the approval of a new type of investment indexed to the cryptocurrency.
Since their approval on January 10 by US securities regulators, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) indexed to bitcoin have theoretically enabled a wider public to invest in the cryptocurrency without having to hold it directly.
The funds themselves, however, do invest in the digital currency.
The expected approval of the new investment product had contributed in recent months to a rise in its price, which had slumped throughout most of 2022 following the bankruptcy of several crypto giants.
The industry sees the entrance of ETFs on the US market as proof of the growing interest from institutional investors in cryptocurrencies, further boosting enthusiasm for bitcoin.
The digital unit is created — or “mined” — as a reward when powerful computers solve complex problems to validate transactions made on the blockchain.
Another forthcoming event is also supporting bitcoin prices.
“Halving” is a technical phenomenon in which the reward given to bitcoin “miners” — those who contribute to the creation of the blockchain by validating transactions — is divided in two.
The event takes place every 210,000 blocks, or groups of transactions verified and incorporated on the blockchain, which corresponds to about every four years. The next halving is set for April.
The digital currency has a finite number of units. Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto has limited the maximum number of bitcoins to 21 million.
An ongoing court case in London is meanwhile seeking to determine whether Australian computer scientist Craig Wright invented bitcoin.
Wright says he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of bitcoin’s creator and author of a white paper that introduced the cryptocurrency to the world in 2008.
Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a non-profit organisation set up to keep cryptocurrency technology free from patents, is suing Wright over the claims he first made in 2016
