By Natasha Doff and Adam Haigh, Bloomberg News
Bitcoin touched $15,000 for the first time on Thursday, extending its advance this month to more than 50 percent as concerns mounted the cryptocurrency’s rapid rise masks risks.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency is surging on expectations that new bitcoin derivatives products expected to begin trading this month will boost mainstream demand. Some of the world’s biggest brokerages criticized those plans on Wednesday, telling regulators the contracts have been rushed to market without enough due diligence.
Bitcoin jumped as much as 18.4 percent to $15,797 on Friday, before paring gains to to $14,818 at 12:20 p.m. in London. That takes the digital currency’s surge this year to more than 1,400 percent and its market capitalization to $257 billion.
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