Bitcoin and Ether Soar to Record Highs This week

This week both Bitcoin, the number one cryptocurrency and Ethereum, the second most largest digital asset, saw their prices exploding.

According to CoinDesk data, Ethereum hit a record high on Thursday at $1,918.52 in the morning trade in Asia while Bitcoin roared to over $52,000 for the first time on Wednesday.

Ether has seen a year-to-date price rise of 160% compared to bitcoin’s 78% surge in the same period.

“The ether slingshot is in motion, with the number 2 coin looking cheap and posed to surge relative to bitcoin’s $52k level,” Jehan Chu, co-founder of firm Kenetic Capital, told CNBC.

It was this week that North America’s first Bitcoin ETF also had its debut, with investors exchanging $165 million worth of shares.

Dubbed Purpose Bitcoin ETF (ticker BTCC), the ETF invests directly in “physical/digital Bitcoin,” issuer Purpose Investments Inc. said in a statement.

It may well be “the stimulus asset,” DoubleLine Capital LP chief Jeffrey Gundlach said in a tweet. Previously Gundlach had said he did not believe in Bitcoin.

“There’s sizable untapped interest for a Bitcoin investment that has the benefits of an ETF,” said Todd Rosenbluth, CFRA Research’s director of ETF research.

“While most ETFs come to market globally with an educational hurdle to overcome, many investors are familiar with what is inside BTCC,” he added.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.