By Frances Yue
Bitcoin was trading near $67,000 on Wednesday, recording an all-time high, after ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, the first bitcoin-linked exchange traded fund (ETF) in the U.S., debuted on Tuesday.
The cryptocurrency touched an $66,974 intraday high on Wednesday morning New York time, according to CoinDesk data.
Bitcoin /zigman2/quotes/31322028/realtime BTCUSD +0.44% hit a previous all-time high of $64,889 on April 14, according to CoinDesk data.
ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF /zigman2/quotes/230440344/composite BITO -2.39% stock was trading around $43.63 at midday Wednesday, up about 4% from the Tuesday’s close. The ETF primarily invests in bitcoin futures contracts, which bet on the future prices of bitcoin, instead of the cryptocurrency itself.
“The next 10 days will see further fresh capital hit the market, and should delay any material attempt to exit short term, profitable positions held by traders front running the SEC decision,” Matt Blom, head of global sales and trading of crypto exchange Eqonex wrote Tuesday.
“There are a bunch of other ETFs that are in line for approval in coming months,” Pankaj Balani, CEO of crypto exchange Delta exchange wrote through email. “As these get cleared we should see more and more institutional flow coming to Bitcoin.”
Gavin Smith, CEO of crypto hedge fund Panxora, said the debut of BITO offers “an easy route for retail investors to take advantage of this marketplace.”
Such inflow may push bitcoin even higher, according to the analysts.
“The setup on BTC looks very similar to how it was at this time last year, wherein the bellwether outperformed other Altcoins and posted a massive rally in Q4,” Balani wrote.
Add to watchlist
