Bitcoin, at around $US54,660, is trading at its highest level since December 2021.

I have just spent the better part of the last half hour trying to find out why. The answer … ???

One crypto devotee Clem Chambers, who owns Bitcoin, wrote in Forbes that there was a run-up in value ahead of the “halvening”, which is coming up in a couple of months and will reduce the supply of new bitcoin.

He says the price of bitcoin has jumped on each halvening, and the market is front-running the event.

 As for why traders decided to do that last night???

There is also some chatter that the risk of a US government shutdown amid continued arguments between the Biden administration and the Republican controlled Congress over budget restraint and priorities might be partly behind the latest surge.

The recent approval of Bitcoin ETFs in the US also appears to have given the cryptocurrency a boost, as it closes in on its record high of just over $US69,000 briefly reached in November 2021.