Bitcoin crossed $7,000 this week, setting another all-time high of $7,350 on Bitstamp Thursday. The cryptocurrency has climbed 620 percent since the start of the year, when it traded near $1,000. At t
Bitcoin crossed $7,000 this week, setting another all-time high of $7,350 on Bitstamp Thursday. The cryptocurrency has climbed 620 percent since the start of the year, when it traded near $1,000. At these levels, bitcoin's total market value sits around $121 billion, more than Goldman Sachs.
Iqbal Gandham, who manages eToro's UK operations, expects continued momentum. "Despite another fork lurking just around the corner, we expect to see bitcoin hit new highs in the weeks ahead," he said. "Now part of the US$100 billion club, with a market cap bigger than Goldman Sachs, investors are increasingly confident in its future."
Some traders attribute this week's gains to the Segwit2X hardfork scheduled for November 16. The bigger catalyst may be CME Group's plan to launch bitcoin futures contracts before year's end, pending regulatory approval. The company runs the world's largest regulated foreign exchange market.
Terry Duffy, CME's chairman and chief executive, said the company decided to introduce bitcoin futures contracts following "increasing client interest in the evolving cryptocurrency markets." "As the world's largest regulated FX marketplace, CME Group is the natural home for this new vehicle that will provide investors with transparency, price discovery and risk transfer capabilities," he said. CME and Crypto Facilities have been publishing the BRR, a benchmark rate, since November 2016. Four major spot exchanges—Bitstamp, GDAX, itBit and Kraken—supply the pricing data.
The launch could strengthen cryptocurrency legitimacy in finance. Charles Hayter, CEO of CryptoCompare, told CNBC that the shift represents a major turning point. "This is bitcoin crossing the divide from the wild west of finance to the mainstream," he said. "Futures from an incumbent exchange bring bitcoin and cryptocurrencies into the regulatory fold. This allows more complex financial products to be created and will eventually open the doors to institutional money."
The overall cryptocurrency market has reached $190 billion in value. Bitcoin accounts for more than 60 percent of that. Ether, the second largest digital currency by market cap, has surged 3,500 percent to around $300 since January. Bitcoin Cash, which split from bitcoin in July, carries a market capitalization of $9.3 billion and ranks third among cryptocurrencies.
