Since crossing the $10,000 psychological barrier, bitcoin seems to be having absolutely no troubles crossing the thousand-dollar marks. Just last week, Bitcoin Smashed through $10,000 and $11,000 within 48 hours, and today bitcoin zoomed past $12,000 and $13,000 within 24 hours. Bitcoin hit a record-breaking high of $12,000 today, with a market capitalization of about $200 billion, as per information from CoinmarketCap. The price beat the $12,000 mark and came to $12,032 at 13:49:12 GMT. The value plunged to $11,972.10 at 14:54:12 GMT before picking up momentum again and surging past $13,000, hitting a value of $13,131 with a market capitalization of $219 billion at about 15:30 GMT.

Bitcoin price chart (Source: coinmarketcap.com) Bitcoin's ascent has been driven by launch of regulated futures contracts by two of the world’s largest exchange holding companies scheduled to take place this month, which flag the flood of institutional interest in bitcoin and conceivably different digital currencies as well. Cboe Futures Exchange (CFE), intends to start trading in bitcoin futures on Sunday, Dec. 10, 2017, at the beginning of global trading hours, with Monday, Dec. 11, being the first full day of trading; while CME, has announced that it will list bitcoin futures on Dec. 18.