Bitcoin goes ballistic

1. What do you think was the most remarkable thing that happened this week?

Cryptocurrency Bitcoin hit US$11,000 mid-week, up a stunning 11 times since the beginning of the year, as mainstream acceptance took hold. Wild swings continue to take place. Of course, we don't even need to go into how a programmer named Laszlo, way ahead of his time, paid 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas back in 2010. That's US$110 million, in case you're wondering. Part of the latest frenzy is due to major US exchanges planning more ways for investors to trade the product. In August, when Bitcoin was below US$3,000 a pop, the Chicago Board Options Exchange said it was planning to launch Bitcoin derivatives early next year.

In October, Goldman Sachs said it is contemplating a trading operation to deal in digital currencies. CME Group said in end-October that it planned to launch a bitcoin futures contract by the end of the year. Bitcoin bears gasped in pain again after Nasdaq and broker Cantor Fitzgerald both said this week that they plan to launch derivatives on it in the first half of 2018.