Bitcoin climbed to a new high and is on its way to US$100,000 according to many commentators.
The cryptocurrency rose by 5% to US$65,844, helped by the seemingly tacit acceptance from US regulators that bitcoin is high to stay.
ProShares’s BITO Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) this week became the first of its kind to be approved by the US SEC
The ETF saw US$1bn in trades on its first day (Tuesday) and was described by one commentator at Bloomberg as arguably the biggest ETF launch ever in terms of natural or ‘grassroots’ interest.
“The party is on,” added Naeem Aslam, market analyst at AvaTrade.
“Given the price momentum we are seeing on the back of Bitcoin’s ETF, we believe that Bitcoin can easily go all the way to 100K by the end of this year.”
Even stalwarts of US business seemed to have decided that if you can’t beat them you might as well join them.
Billionaire industrialist Carl Icahn this week suggested bitcoin might turn out to be the best way to hedge against inflation and a weaker dollar, something he believes is definitely coming.
“In the long run, we are certainly going to hit the wall. I really think there will be a crisis the way we are going, the way we are printing money, the way we are going into inflation. Icahn said on Monday in an interview with CNBC.
Icahn would not be drawn on whether he has a bitcoin position, though did say that like many investors he and his company were struggling to get a handle on where it might heading and how to assess it as an asset class.
“The jury is really out on whether bitcoin has intrinsic value or acts as a store of value. If inflation gets rampant, I guess it does have value. There are so many variables, it is a very difficult thing to invest in.”
