LONDON: Bitcoin briefly rallied to a record high on Friday in volatile trading, as crypto mania continued to sweep through the investment community.

The leading crypto currency topped the $70,000 mark for the first time, boosted by investor dem­and for new US spot exchange-traded crypto products and expectations for global interest rates to fall.

It rose to as high as $70,105 before quickly dropping, and was last trading at $68,317.72.

Billions of dollars have flowed into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the past few weeks, and the market is getting extra support from an outlook that includes an upgrade to the ethereum blockchain platform, home to the second-largest crypto currency ether, and a bitcoin “halving” event, which slows the flow of bitcoin minting, in April.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2024