Early Thursday stock gains included Marathon Patent Group's rise of as much as 20 per cent, lifting shares to the highest since March 2018
The rout began just hours after Bitcoin rose to within $7 of its record high of $19,511, the culmination of a more than 250% surge in past nine months
Bitcoin has soared over 130% this year, and is up more than four-fold from its March lows
The largest digital token, trading around $7,200, has posted gains of more than 9,000,000 per cent since July 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Exchange operators, investors and analysts say people are rushing to take advantage of a three-month window
Their caution is the latest sign of doubt among investors that the red-hot rise of bitcoin and its ilk is sustainable
The move adds a new hurdle to the bid by Wall Street firms to capitalise on investor interest in cryptocurrencies
Ethereum, the second-largest by market value, has roughly tripled in the last two months
The government clarified that virtual currencies are not legal tender and are neither currencies nor coins
Although there are hopes that the futures will draw in new investors, most fund managers at larger asset managers and institutional investors said bitcoin remains too volatile
The currency has risen more than 1,500 per cent this year, and about 85 per cent just in the past two weeks, driven largely by demand from individual investors
Many Indian staff of foreign firms sending money home through cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency's rising value is forcing global central banks to form a view on bitcoin
Bengaluru entrepreneur couple partners Zebpay to help their guests gift them bitcoins
Goldman Sachs Group Inc on Thursday said it is planning to clear bitcoin futures for some clients as the new contracts go live on the exchanges in the coming days