Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Bitcoin wasted no time taking advantage of its first U.S. future exchange-traded fund, or ETF, as the cryptocurrency reached a new high of $66,390.75 just before noon on Wednesday.
The king of cryptocurrencies easily topped its previous record of $64,899 set in April.
On Tuesday, the exchange-traded fund provider ProShares launched its bitcoin-connected fund on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "BITO." The fund, approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, will track bitcoin's futures market, the first time that has ever been done for a cryptocurrency.
Coindesk said the new fund pulled in $570 million of assets on its opening day and attracted $1 billion of trading volume, making it one of the top ETF launches ever.
"The key here is whether we are able to establish support above $65,000," Jesse Proudman, CEO of crypto-robo adviser Makara, told CNBC. "If we can, the classic [fourth quarter] crypto rallies we've seen in most years could take bitcoin towards some of the loftier price predictions we've seen over the past several months. If sell pressure takes over, though, our next leg up could take awhile to materialize."
Marcus Sotiriou, sales trader at Global Block told Business Insider the ETF will be a big factor for driving bitcoin's prices higher by allowing a new wave of money to enter the market.
