BITCOIN BONANZA

Cryptocurrency hits high as new w investors rush in n

Bitcoin touched a new high on Monday as a new crop of speculators entered the fray.

The 8-year-old cryptocurrency — or is it a crypto-asset? — rose as much as 14 percent, to $17,370, after the initial day of trading of bitcoin futures on the CBOE, the first traditional trading platform for the nontraditional digital coin.

Late on Sunday, just after the CBOE trading began, a bitcoin futures contract expiring in January was sold for $18,545, a 19 percent pop.

“I’m pleased to report the successful launch of CBOE bitcoin futures,” Ed Tilly, chief executive of Cboe Global Markets, said in a statement Monday.

“We look forward to the growth of this new derivatives market,” Tilly said.

Bitcoin has been one of the brightest stars in the investment galaxy for years — but has really generated widespread headlines just this year as it has soared more than 15,000 percent.

It has made millionaires of small-time early adopters and billionaires of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who invested $11 million in the cryptocurrency in 2013.

Going into Sunday’s CBOE launch, bitcoin critics speculated that the introduction of futures contracts, which allow traders to bet against an asset, would put some downward pressure on the red-hot asset.

So far, that hasn’t been the case.

As of 7 p.m., bitcoin retreated slightly from the day’s high, but was still priced at $16,699 on Coindesk.

“We’re still in the early-to-middle stage of the bitcoin rally, and more seasoned investors — those that trade futures — are usually experienced enough to not short a rallying market,” Ihor Dusaniwsky of financial analytics firm S3 Partners told The Post.

Just last week, bitcoin surged more than 40 percent on some exchanges — nearly touching $20,000 — before tumbling back down.

And many traders — representing enthusiasts and skeptics — are still trying to understand how the nascent cryptocurrency works.

“I don’t think it is written in stone that because futures are available, the prices have to go down,” Mark Newton, technical market analyst of Newton Advisors, told The Post.

“Very few people can withstand shorting something that goes up 10 to 15 percent every day,” Newton said.

Bitcoin is a decentralized payment system not backed by any country or central bank — and its allure, in part, is that it is untraceable.

That is, it can be sent around the world without any formal paperwork or trail.

It has gained wider acceptance at retail — and by investors — as its price has risen.

But unhinged from any national backing, critics fear it can also crater with the same velocity and force that marked its ascent.

CME Group will be launching its own bitcoin exchange on Dec. 18, while the Nasdaq has plans to start trading bitcoin futures next year.