Bitcoin hits $12,000 for first time

Bitcoin surged to another record high on Wednesday, reaching the $12,000 milestone for the first time as runaway demand for the cryptocurrency continued. Bitcoin, which started the year below $1,000, has been lifted this week by Friday's announcement by federal regulators that they would let CME Group Inc and CBOE Global Markets list bitcoin futures contracts. The move fueled optimism among investors about broader mainstream use of cryptocurrencies despite warnings by some financial experts that their meteoric rise signals a bubble that could soon burst.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.