Bitcoin reaches an all-time high as SEC decision looms

Bitcoin is reaching new highs.

The cryptocurrency on Friday morning was trading at $1,197 — just above the $1,165 record high average price set three years ago, according to CoinDesk.

Bitcoin has staged a comeback after nearly reaching a record high but then falling at the very beginning of 2017. On the currency's first day of trading in the new year, it steadily rose to over $1,000 before crashing into the $900 range.

At the time, demand for bitcoin was growing in China and some buyers in India were turning to bitcoin amid the country's demonetization crisis.

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This time around, bitcoin traders are optimistic that the Securities and Exchange Commission will approve bitcoin's first exchange-traded fund. That SEC approval could make bitcoin more attractive to investors who have so far stayed away.

The SEC is supposed to decide on this by March 11, and traders are optimistic about the fund's approval. For the next two weeks, prices are likely to keep rising unless the SEC comes out with a decision that bitcoin's boosters don't like.

If the ETF is approved, prices could even keep going up beyond the next two weeks now that the public will have an easy way to put their money into bitcoin.

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2017 bitcoin optimism, round two?