Crypto Today: Bitcoin surges above $13K as rally continues

• Bitcoin adds $1400 on Wednesday.
• The BTC/USD gains more than 30% since Monday.
• Ether extends losses, approaches $400.

Following a brief consolidation period during the NA session, the BTC/USD pair gathered momentum and broke above the $13000 mark to reach a new all-time high at $13070. This latest upsurge triggered some profit-taking, and the pair was last seen trading at $13000, where it was adding 12%, or $1410, on the day. Today's price action seems to be a continuation of the latest rally, which started with the CME's announcement of launching bitcoin futures before the end of the year.

Summarizing the interest of institutional investors, "Cboe Global Markets Inc. has said it will start trading bitcoin futures on Dec. 10, while CME Group Inc.’s contracts are set to debut on Dec. 18. Nasdaq Inc. is planning to offer futures in 2018, according to a person familiar with the matter. Cantor Fitzgerald LP’s Cantor Exchange is creating a bitcoin derivative, and startup LedgerX already offers options," Bloomberg said in a recent article.

According to coindesk.com, South Korean exchanges Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit are offering prices above $15K for bitcoin at the moment. The total market capitalization of all digital currencies remains at a record high of $380 billion based on the latest available data on coinmarketcap.com. With this recent advance, bitcoin's volume rose above 58%.

On the other hand, the interest over bitcoin seems to be dampening the demand for its rival digital currencies, In fact, ether (ETH/USD) and bitcoin cash (BCH/USD) are down 6% and 4% on the day respectively.