Bitcoin Hits $60,000

Bitcoin passed the $60,000 mark, approaching its all-time high and continuing its unbridled rise since the approval of a new type of investment indexed to the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin traded as high as $61,360, closing in on its all-time high of $68,991 -- struck in November 2021 and which some analysts believe is now within reach.

Since their approval on January 10 by US securities regulators, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) indexed to bitcoin have theoretically enabled a wider public to invest in the cryptocurrency without having to hold it directly. The funds themselves, however, do invest in the digital currency.

The expected approval of the new investment product had contributed in recent months to a rise in its price, which had largely fallen by the end of 2022 following the bankruptcy of several crypto giants.

The instruments are comparable to stocks or mutual funds as far as accessibility to everyday investors.

Some investors eager to recoup their bets had initially triggered a wave of mass withdrawals from the GBTC (Grayscale Bitcoin Trust) fund, once it had been converted into an ETF.

But once the selling fever subsided, flows into US bitcoin ETFs, such as that offered by asset management giant BlackRock, increased.

Exchange-listed crypto asset-linked investment products have attracted around $5.7 billion since the start of the year, according to calculations by asset manager CoinShares published.

As further evidence of "the growing institutional endorsement that's fuelling this rally" in prices, software company MicroStrategy announced that it had purchased a further 3,000 bitcoins.

The transaction brought its total bitcoin holdings to 193,000 bitcoins.

Bitcoin is created -- or "mined" -- as a reward when powerful computers solve complex problems to validate transactions made on the blockchain.