(London) Bitcoin hit its highest in nearly a year and a half, briefly surpassing $35,000 on Tuesday, after a US appeals court upheld a recent legal victory for a new bitcoin product. general public investment in this digital currency.

Around 5:50 a.m., bitcoin was climbing 9.25% to $34,446, after briefly crossing the $35,000 mark on Tuesday, to $35,172, a level it hadn’t reached since May 2022 The price of bitcoin has doubled since the start of the year.

Bitcoin benefits from “improving prospects for acceptance of ETFs” (index funds) and maintains “its strength as a somewhat alternative investment in times of uncertainty,” explained Walid Koudmani, analyst at XTB.

The surge in the price of the leading cryptocurrency follows the decision of a federal appeals court in Washington on Monday which upheld a victory for cryptocurrency asset manager Grayscale.

At the end of August, this court of appeal ruled in favor of the latter, who contested the refusal of the SEC, the policeman of the American markets, to authorize the listing of a so-called index fund (ETF), whose assets were invested in bitcoins.

The court considered that the SEC had not sufficiently argued the reasons for its refusal, and the regulator let the date pass to challenge this decision.

The authorization of such a fund, which several players want to launch, “could encourage a wider range of investors to enter the cryptocurrency sector”, estimates Patrick Munnelly, analyst at Tickmill.

On Friday, bitcoin had already crossed the $30,000 mark following the partial withdrawal of the SEC, which had taken federal action to obtain the conviction of Ripple Labs, creator of the XRP cryptocurrency, which it accused of having marketed without prior registration with the SEC.