Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins placed on Dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationThomson Reuters
  • Bitcoin posted a new high of $11,829 a coin in early trade in London on Tuesday.
  • JPMorgan says new futures contracts could "elevate cryptocurrencies to an emerging asset class."

LONDON — Bitcoin's meteoric price rise is continuing amid growing interest in the cryptocurrency from institutional investors.
Bitcoin posted a record high against the dollar on Tuesday morning, hitting $11,829 a coin at about 8 a.m. GMT (3 a.m. ET), according to Markets Insider data.
The rise comes amid growing interest from institutional investors in cryptocurrencies, which until recently were viewed with relative disdain by figures in the world of traditional finance.
CBOE Global Markets, the Chicago-based options and derivatives exchange, on Monday announced plans to launch bitcoin futures contracts next week. Its rival CME Group has already announced plans for a similar product.
JPMorgan said in a note sent to clients last week that futures contracts had "the potential to elevate cryptocurrencies to an emerging asset class."
"The value of this new asset class is a function of the breadth of its acceptance as a store of wealth and as a means of payment," the analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou and his team said in the note. "Simply judging by other stores of wealth such as gold, cryptocurrencies have the potential to grow further from here."
Panigirtzoglou's optimism comes despite a track record of negative comments about bitcoin from JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon. In September, Dimon called bitcoin a fraud he said was "worse than tulip bulbs," a reference to the speculative bubble in the Netherlands in the 17th century.

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