HONG KONG: Bitcoin fell slightly in Asian hours on Thursday, Oct 21, a day after marking an all-time high on optimism around the launch of the first US bitcoin futures ETF.
The world's largest cryptocurrency was last down 1.3 per cent at US $65,184 after hitting a record US $67,016 on Wednesday, but still above a previous peak of US $64,895 seen in April.
We think its going to go higher and we can get to 80 or 90,000 by the end of this year easy, but that won't be without volatility, said Matt Dibb, COO of Singapore-based Stack Funds.
Ether, the world's second largest cryptocurrency, rose 1 per cent to US $4,203 and there were also sharper gains in smaller tokens.
Market players say the latest wave of buying has been supported by the launch of the first US bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund ETF with investors betting this will open a path to greater investment from both retail and institutional investors.
Existing bitcoin exchange-traded funds and products have seen sharp inflows since September.
Average weekly flows to bitcoin funds totalled US $121.1 million in October, up from US $31.2 million a month earlier, data from CryptoCompare shows.
The three months prior to September had seen outflows following steep losses for bitcoin in May and June.