Bitcoin rallies for sixth day in a row, hits new record high of $71,500

Net flows into the 10 largest U.S. spot Bitcoin funds reached $2.17 billion in the week to March 1

Bitcoin hit a new record high on March 11 above $71,00o, as the surge in the biggest cryptocurrency showed no signs of slowing down.

It rose to $71,649.3, as per data on CoinDesk.

The cryptocurrency has been boosted by a flood of cash into new spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) as well as hopes that the Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates.

Billions of dollars have flowed into ETFs in the past few weeks, and the market is getting extra support from an outlook that includes an upgrade to the ethereum blockchain platform, home to the second-largest cryptocurrency ether, and a bitcoin "halving" event, which slows the flow of bitcoin minting, in April.

Last week, after hitting a record high, bitcoin sharply reversed course and fell more than 10 percent to trade below the $60,000 level.

The approval of 11 spot bitcoin ETFs by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in late January marked a watershed moment for the industry, following an 18-month-long crypto winter plagued by a string of high-profile corporate bankruptcies and scandals.

"Investors are getting turned on to the fact that Bitcoin can be treated as an uncorrelated asset, which makes it extremely attractive for portfolio diversification," Joel Kruger, market strategist at digital currencies exchange LMAX Group, told news agency CBS MoneyWatch.

Net flows into the 10 largest US spot Bitcoin funds reached $2.17 billion in the week to March 1, with more than half of that going into BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, according to LSEG data.

Other Cryptos

Ether was last up 1.62 percent at $3,939.84. Crypto stocks were also up on March 8, with shares of Coinbase last higher at 8.2 percent, and crypto miners Riot Platforms and Marathon Digital up 5.1 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively.

With agency inputs