Bitcoin exchange adds 100,000 users in a day

The eye-popping surge in bitcoin this week is paying dividends for one of the biggest US online cryptocurrency exchanges. Coinbase Inc added more than 100,000 users in the past 24 hours in the wake of the CME Group Inc’s announcement Tuesday that it plans to introduce bitcoin futures by the end of the year. 

That’s according to data collected by Alistair Milne, a portfolio manager at the Altana Digital Currency Fund. The number of users of the online wallet function offered by Coinbase has more than doubled since the beginning of the year, according to stats on the company’s website. 

As with the increase in the price of bitcoin to more than $7,000 this year, new customers may be wise to proceed with caution.