sent shares of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related companies such as Coinbase Global and Marathon Digital Holdings up 6.5 per cent and 11.9 per cent respectively. Bitcoin is up more than 18 per cent from the year's low of US$26,533 on Oct 11.
"We have seen recent geopolitical tensions drive demand for scarce assets, including both physical gold and bitcoin, which many investors view as digital gold," said Zach Pandl, managing director of research at Grayscale Investments, a crypto asset manager. Bitcoin briefly soared on Oct 16 following an erroneous news report about asset manager BlackRock's high-profile application for a spot bitcoin ETF, which would track the underlying price of the token. The US Securities and Exchange Commission is still reviewing the proposal and is expected to deliver a decision by next year at the latest.