Bitcoin blasts to new all-time high of $6,450

[November 01, 2017]    LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin climbed to a new all-time high of $6,450 on Wednesday, boosted by bets the cryptocurrency could enter the financial mainstream after the world's largest derivatives exchange operator said on Tuesday it would launch bitcoin futures.

A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. Picture taken October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

CME Group Inc <CME.O> said it would provide a regulated trading venue for the cryptocurrency market and would launch the new derivatives in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Bitcoin has had a bumper year with a more than sixfold increase in price, and has more than doubled in price since mid-September alone.

It was up 0.3 percent on Wednesday on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange <BTC=BTSP>.

(Reporting by Jemima Kelly, Editing by Abhinav Ramnarayan)

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