Bitcoin has risen over $60,000 for the first time since April after increasing in price fairly steadily throughout October so far.
The world's largest cryptocurrency rose to a high of $60,316 on Friday and has remained around the $60,000 mark throughout the morning, CoinMarketCap data shows.
As of 10:10 a.m. Bitcoin was worth $60,045, taking its market cap—the total value of all bitcoin in circulation—to $1.13 trillion.
It means the digital currency is not far off its all-time high of $64,863, which it achieved in April this year according to CoinMarketCap.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are notorious for their sudden swings in price, and experts have previously warned Newsweek about the risks associated with trading them.
Bitcoin plummeted in price earlier this year, falling from around $59,000 in early May to less than $35,000 that same month. At one point in July it fell below the $30,000 mark, though prices began to recover after that.
It's not clear why the recent rise in price has taken place, but it could be due to the fact that the first ever bitcoin futures exchange trading fund (ETF) may be due to start trading on Tuesday next week, Bloomberg and CNBC have reported.
An ETF is essentially a fund that tracks the performance of multiple other assets, such as stocks or currencies. An ETF can also be traded just like a stock can.
The benefit of an ETF is that they are easy to trade like stocks, but also have the bonus of diversification, according to finance site NerdWallet.
Bitcoin futures, meanwhile, are contracts that require the buyer to purchase the currency at a specific date. They are essentially a way of speculating on the cryptocurrency's future price.
According to CNBC the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may still object to the bitcoin futures ETF right up until midnight on Monday, though some think it unlikely that this will happen. The proposed ETF is being seen as wider adoption of the crypto market.
Meanwhile bitcoin has also seen some indirect support from Texas senator Ted Cruz, who appeared at the Texas Blockchain Summit last Friday to float the idea of using bitcoin mining in the state to make use of energy produced by oil and gas.
Cruz said that natural gas is "being wasted" in Texas by being flared and that it could be put to "productive use" by bitcoin miners instead, who require vast amounts of energy in order to power the computers that generate new bitcoins.
According to CoinTelegraph, he suggested that this extra power could be redirected into Texas' electricity grid in the event of power outages, the likes of which plagued the state in the winter earlier this year.
This is in contrast to China, where cryptocurrency mining has nearly disappeared due to regulatory crackdowns.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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