Above $10K: CME Bitcoin Futures Hit 3.5-Month Highs

Bitcoin futures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange rose to multi-month highs, breaking above $10,000 early Friday.

The February contract crossed above the psychological hurdle and printed a high of $10,030 at 11:40 UTC, a level last seen on Oct. 26.

The breakout into five figures, however, was short-lived as prices quickly pared gains to trade below $10,000. At press time, the futures are trading near $9,850.

The February contract has failed twice in the past 24 hours to keep gains above the $10,000 mark. Prices briefly rose to a high of $10,010 during Thursday's U.S. trading hours.

The uptick in futures is backed by a surge in open positions on major exchanges like the CME and Bakkt. Open interest, the number of open futures contracts on the CME, jumped to a five-month high of $249 million on Wednesday – up 34.5 percent from $185 million seen two weeks ago. Meanwhile, open positions on Bakkt, rose to a record high of $13 million on Wednesday, surpassing the previous record high of $12 million reached on Feb. 3, according to data analytics firm Skew.

While the futures market tested the water above $10,000, the spot price fell short by $128. The cryptocurrency's global average price, as calculated by CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index, hit a high of $9,872 and was last seen at $9,740.

Bitcoin rallied by 30 percent in January to register its biggest monthly gain since May 201, making it the best January performance in seven years.

Currently, the top cryptocurrency is reporting a 36 percent gain on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, other major cryptocurrencies like ether, litecoin and EOS are up 70 to 75 percent, according to data source CoinMarketCap.

Disclosure: The author does not currently hold any digital assets.