Bitcoin just hit a new high. Is it time to reconsider crypto in your portfolio?
globalnews.caBitcoin’s price hit a new high on Tuesday after a months-long rally, the latest step on a volatile journey for the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
Analysts who spoke to Global News say it’s an opportunity for investors to consider whether bitcoin, and crypto more broadly, has a role to play alongside assets like gold in their portfolio.
Bitcoin hit an all-time high of US$69,202 in intraday trading on Tuesday, topping the previous peak of US$68,999.99 from November 2021. It then retreated from those highs to float around US$65,000 by noon eastern.
Bitcoin’s overall rise of nearly 160 per cent since October 2023, of which 44 per cent came in February alone, marks a sharp contrast to 2022, when the market was beaten into an 18-month-long crypto winter, plagued by a string of high-profile corporate bankruptcies and scandal.
But a turnaround in bitcoin’s prospects came with a long-awaited regulatory approval in the new year.
Driving some of the run-up in prices at the end of 2023 was anticipation that the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States would soon approve bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
That paid off on Jan. 10 when the securities regulator south of the border gave the all-clear to BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, to open one of 11 spot bitcoin ETFs given the go-ahead that same day.
Exchange-traded funds allow investors to get exposure to an entire basket of securities, like stocks, bonds and other assets, without having to own them outright. Experts compare the bitcoin ETF to funds for gold, allowing investors to get exposure to the commodity without having to store it in a safety deposit box, for example.
Though bitcoin ETFs have been approved for years in Canada and launched last
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