Bitcoin tops $12,000 for the first time and is gunning for $13,000

Bitcoin was eyeing $13,000 a coin Wednesday morning, less than 12 hours after soaring over $12,000 for the first time.
The red-hot coin is up more than 1,155% year-to-date, according to data from Markets Insider.

Bitcoin was gunning for $13,000 a coin Wednesday morning after breaking through a fresh milestone late Tuesday.

Bitcoin soared over $12,000 a coin in a bullish night of trading Tuesday. And by 6:36 a.m. ET Wednesday, the scorching-hot cryptocurrency was trading up 8.87% against the US dollar at $12,768 a coin.

John Spallanzani, chief macro strategist at CFI Group, told Business Insider trading activity in Asia was the catalyst for the impressive tear.

"Bitcoin continues to have a strong bid during Asia trading as emerging market currencies are being sold to buy, pushing us above another milestone," Spallanzani said in a Twitter direct message soon after bitcoin broke $12,000.

The new high Wednesday morning is ahead of the launch of new bitcoin futures contracts by two major US exchanges. Cboe Global Markets, the Chicago-based options and derivatives exchange, is rolling out its bitcoin futures product Sunday. Rival CME Group is launching later in December. Bitcoin futures, which will allow investors to bet on the future price of the digital coin, is the latest in the eight-year-old coin's maturation.

Futures could help dampen the coin's spine-tingling price swings, according to Craig Pirrong, a business professor at the University of Houston.

"Having this instrument that makes it easier to short might keep the bitcoin price a little closer to reality," he told Bloomberg's Matt Levine.

As for how much room bitcoin has to run, some clients of investment bank Goldman Sachs appear bullish. As reported by Business Insider's Oscar Williams-Grut, the bank's market "strat" team polled clients on bitcoin.

Opinion on the price trajectory was divided, but the biggest minority — 30% — answered "Higher [12,000 - 15,000]."

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