Bitcoin Price Hits Fresh All-time High

Bitcoin climbed to a fresh all-time high on Thursday, shrugging off worries about a global banking crackdown on digital-currency exchanges. The price of a single coin traded as high as $1,331 Thursday, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index. Bitcoin's most recent advance comes as Bitfinex, one of the world's largest digital-currency exchanges, has struggled to establish new banking relationships after halting U.S. dollar withdrawals two weeks ago. The freeze has caused the price of bitcoin traded on Bitfinex to soar, possibly distorting prices across the market, as investors are forced to buy coins at a premium in order to move their assets off the exchange. The digital currency has climbed more than 30% this year, even as Chinese regulators instigated a precipitous drop in local trading volume by forcing local exchanges to upgrade their anti-money laundering controls. In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission has rejected two proposed bitcoin exchange-traded funds, though it recently said it would review one of those decisions.