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Bitcoin is close to its all-time price high following a remarkable recovery that has seen it triple in value over the last 12 months.

On Tuesday, the cryptocurrency came within a few hundred dollars of its previous record of $68,990, which it achieved in November 2021.

This all-time high was succeeded by a massive price correction that was compounded by collapsing cryptocurrency exchanges and failed crypto tokens. After consolidating its losses following the crash, bitcoin began to climb steadily in price until late 2023. This is when rumours of an industry-defining event began to supercharge the rally. For years there had been speculation that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was going to approve a bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF), a type of security that would open up the market to billions of dollars worth of institutional investors. These rumours turned out to be true, when the SEC approved a wave of ETFs, triggering the second leg of the current price run.