Bitcoin price passes $69,000 to hit record high

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Bitcoin traded at $69,200 on Tuesday, marking a new all-time high for the world’s largest cryptocurrency. 

The price has surged since US regulators in January approved a series of 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 a more than 60 per cent gain for bitcoin since the start of the year and has helped push the flagship crypto token into uncharted territory, passing the record set in November 2021. Shortly after touching the milestone, bitcoin fell 4.7 per cent to $64,300.

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. 

“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,” said Comair. 

“We have to ask the question of whether we’re missing something big or not,” said Luca Paolini, chief strategist at Pictet Asset Management. “The environment we’re in now is very different from a…