Bitcoin’s exchange rate against the U.S. dollar and the euro rose near previous all-time highs on Thursday. The BTC/USD rate on European exchange Bitstamp went as high as $1342 by 4:45 p.m. EST.
And on U.S.-based exchange Kraken, which has the highest volume BTC/EUR pair, the price of the world’s most popular digital currency rallied to €1224.57 on Thursday afternoon.
While on Coinbase’s GDAX exchange, rising investor interest pushed the BTC/GBP exchange rate to a 47-day high of £1045.00.
This week's rise has been chalked up to a variety of fundamental & technical factors by cryptocurrency analysts and users.
But Bitcoin’s exchange rate began to rise sharply on Tuesday after multiple news outlets began reporting on Bats BZX Exchange’s SEC petition - filed on Monday - asking the agency to re-evaluate its decision to reject of the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF.
Other digital currencies saw record-breaking rallies on Tuesday as well. The value of Ether, token of the second-most valuable blockchain network in the world, Ethereum, jumped by 17 percent on Thursday to a record high of $63.00, according to market data from Kraken exchange.
Ether’s rally also lifted the market value of the Ethereum blockchain to a new record of $5.57 billion - approximately one quarter of Bitcoin market valuation of $21.5 billion.
CoinMarketCap.com estimates that Thursday’s tremendous rallies in the world’s top digital currencies, lifted the market capitalization of the entire ecosystem to a new all-time high of $33.1 billion:
Bitcoin/Ether photo by BTC Keychain
