SYDNEY (REUTERS) – Bitcoin and Ether made record peaks in Asia trade on Tuesday (Nov 9) as enthusiasm for cryptocurrency adoption and fears about inflation lent support to the asset class.

Bitcoin rose as high as US$67,803 and Ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market value, hit US$4,825 in early Asian hours.

Both have more than doubled since June and added nearly 70 per cent against the dollar since the start of October.
“Crypto is where the fast money is at,” said Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone. “(Ether) is trending like a dream and I’d be long and strong here,” he added.

“Clients are net long, with 79 per cent of open positions held long, and I can sense the $5k party could get going soon.”
Momentum has been gathering since last month‘s launch of a futures-based bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the United States raised expectations of flow-driven gains.

Bitcoin inflows totalled US$95 million (S$128 million) last week, representing the largest inflows of all digital assets, while inflows during an eight-week bull run for the cryptocurrency were US$2.8 billion, the CoinShares data showed on Monday.

In recent weeks, Australia’s biggest bank has also said it will offer crypto trading to retail customers, Singapore authorities have sounded positive on the asset class and spillover from a positive mood in stocks has lent support.

The moves have helped lift the total market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies above US$3 trillion, according to crypto price and data aggregator CoinGecko.

On the CoinMarketCap platform, which tracks 13,796 cryptocurrencies, the total cryptocurrency market capitalisation was just below US$3 trillion at US$2.92 trillion.