The price of bitcoin continues to climb. It rose to over $ 65,000 on Wednesday. A surge which can be explained in particular by the launch of a financial product on Wall Street linked to cryptocurrency. This is a historic step for its democratization. The cryptocurrency, which traded for less than a dollar twelve years ago, peaked during the session at $ 65,490 around 3:45 p.m. in Paris, up more than 50% over one month and more than 450% over one. year.
Bitcoin has benefited for a month from the launch of the first index fund (ETF) linked to its price on the New York Stock Exchange, whose trading began on Tuesday: investors hope that new funds will be able to enter the cryptocurrency market by using this new regulated financial product.
Indirect investments
The first trading session seems to have been a success, as the ETF had 24.4 million trades and ended up sharply higher. “This proves that there is a strong appetite for exposure to bitcoin,” comments Fawad Razaqzada, analyst at ThinkMarkets, who notes, however, that the purchase of this ETF does not represent a direct investment in bitcoin. By purchasing shares of this new ETF, investors are not going to bet directly on bitcoins. Their money will be placed in bitcoin-linked futures contracts.
The indirect aspect of this placement was fundamental in the eyes of the American market regulator, the SEC, which regularly warned about the significant volatility of bitcoin. Regulators are struggling to position themselves on the subject of cryptocurrencies, whose decentralized network is difficult to control.
Many big names in tech and finance on Wall Street, however, have announced new cryptocurrency-related projects in the past twelve months. A year ago, on October 21, 2020, the online payments giant Paypal kicked off the price hike by launching a cryptocurrency buying, selling and payment service.