Investing.com – Bitcoin rose on Tuesday, as demand for the popular digital currency continued after it made its debut on the Chicago-based derivatives CBOE earlier this week.
On the U.S.-based Bitfinex exchange, bitcoin rose to $17,420, up $664, or 3.98% after hitting an all-time high of $17,579 earlier in the session. The popular digital currency market cap rose to $294.52 billion.
Bitcoin futures continued to trend higher after debuting on the CBOE platform on Sunday, ahead of the ahead of CME Group’s launch of bitcoin futures slated for Dec. 18.
The launch of futures trading has drawn a mixed reaction from investors, as it provides market participants with the option to place bearish bets on bitcoin, which could pressure the price of digital currency. Other market participants believe, however, that the launch of futures paves the way for bitcoin to become an established asset class, which would spur institutional demand.
Bitcoin cash rose 11.63% to $1,572.20 following from a tweet from bitcoin.com CEO Roger Ver, who said on Monday, the digital currency was close to introducing a native payment card, “Bitcoin Cash Visa Debit Card”, allowing investors to use their bitcoin cash or bitcoin for transactions.
Bitcoin gold rose 6.56% to $264.03, while Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, rose 15.22% to $593.42.
The sharp uptick in ehtereum comes as reports emerged that Swiss banking giant UBS would lead an Ethereum-based blockchain platform.