Bitcoin climbed past $9,000, to its highest since May 2018, as reports that Facebook is due to unveil a digital currency added to optimism that cryptocurrencies are becoming more widely adopted by mainstream finance.

The largest digital currency rose as much as 9.4 per cent from late Friday and traded at $9,191.38 at 1:45 pm Hong Kong time. Rival coins also climbed - Litecoin was up 4.4 per cent and Ethereum rose 4 per cent. Crypto-linked stocks are also rising in Asia, with Remixpoint Inc. jumping as much as 9.9 per cent. Monex Group Inc. and Ceres Inc. advanced at least 2 per cent in Tokyo while Vidente Co. climbed as much as 8.4 per cent in Seoul.

The simple fact is, in a time when people are looking for some sort of safe haven or some hedge, money has found its way to Bitcoin, said Brett McGonegal, CEO with Capital Link International, in an interview with Bloomberg TV . The inflection point in any major play to a nascent asset class is the attachment point to institutional money. If institutional money starts to touch bitcoin that’s when you go much higher.

Bitcoin is up more than 130 per cent in 2019 and the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index has almost doubled in value amid a slew of companies looking to deepen their offering of cryptocurrency services. Some investors have said the latest reports detailing Facebook’s plans to launch a digital currency as soon as Monday are pushing people to toward Bitcoin.

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