London — Bitcoin powered to a record high just below $11,800 on Sunday, continuing its surge from below $1,000 at the start of 2017. The cryptocurrency, which trades 24 hours a day and seven days a week, climbed as high as $11,799.99 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange at about 9pm GMT on Sunday. It was not clear what caused the move higher over the weekend other than new investors joining the upstart market, with so-called wallet-providers reporting record numbers of sign-ups over the past week. Analysts said Friday’s announcement by the main US derivatives regulator that it would allow CME Group and CBOE Global Markets to list bitcoin futures contracts, had turned sentiment positive after a choppy week. "The price rises are triggered by continued media interest driven by the expectation of futures trading on CME," Charles Hayter, founder of data analysis website Cryptocompare, said. By 12.30pm GMT on Monday, bitcoin had slipped back to about $11,250, still up more than 100% ...
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