Bitcoin touched $60,000 for the first time in history, rising about 6 percent in 24 hours.
Bitcoin's price is now up about 1,400% from last March's low of about $4,000.
Ether rose about 3 percent to $1,820.
There are signs of increased interest and speculative demand from both institutional investors.
Along with the rapid rise in Bitcoin, a total of 173,609 short positions were forced to close in the last 24 hours, with the largest single trade occurring on Bitmex-ETHUSDM21 worth $10.99 million.
Investors have been forced to close out positions worth $922 million in the last 24 hours.
