Bitcoin zooms past $15,000 ahead of futures trading launch

Bitcoin rocketed above $15,000 for the first time ever on Thursday, up more than 10 percent on the day, after adding more than $2,000 to its price in fewer than 12 hours.

Bitcoin, the world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, has seen a more than fifteen-fold surge in its value since the start of the year.

It climbed to as high as $15,212 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange just after 1400 GMT, having traded just above $13,000 12 hours earlier BTC=BTSP.

Many market-watchers said the launch this weekend of bitcoin futures by CBOE, one of the biggest global derivatives exchanges, was helping drive up the price on expectations it would draw more investors to the market.