An electronic cryptocurrency trading board at Bithumb in Seoul displays price changes of Bitcoin, Tuesday. Yonhap

Bitcoin surpassed a year-to-date high of 67 million won ($50,000), propelled by the New Year rally effect, market watchers said Tuesday. It is the first time in 26 months since the figure exceeded the $50,000 mark set back in December 2021.

Anchoring the robust performance is the U.S. launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Jan. 10 (local time). Some say the virtual asset will rise further, aided in large part by monetary easing in China and the U.S. The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to cut rates as early as May. The People's Bank of China lowered its reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points effective Feb. 5.

According to bithumb, a local cryptocurrency exchange, Bitcoin rose to 67.1 million won as of 8:40 a.m., Tuesday, up 1.98 percent from 24 hours earlier.

The digital coin was traded at 67.03 million won on Upbit, another local exchange, up 2.74 percent from a day earlier.

Ethereum soared 4.51 percent to 3.56 million won on bithumb. On Upbit, the price came to 3.56 million won, up 5.22 percent.

James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, a global cryptocurrency investor consultancy firm, said in an interview with the Financial Times that many spot Bitcoin ETFs have performed poorly since their launch last month, but the inflow of funds into new ETFs continues.

He said that continued inflows into newly issued funds are being witnessed, while expecting much more organic demand for Bitcoin as a result.

Since the first day of spot Bitcoin ETF trading, over $6 billion has been withdrawn from ETFs issued by Grayscale, an American digital currency asset management company. However, the industry has since registered a net inflow of about $3 billion.

The analyst said that demand for spot Bitcoin ETFs will continue to remain solid, with net inflows of about $2.8 billion since its launch including that of $1.1 billion over the past week.