LONDON/SINGAPORE, March 5 (Reuters) - Bitcoin hit

a record high on Tuesday, fueled by investors pouring money into

U.S. spot exchange-traded crypto products and the prospect that

global interest rates may fall.

The world's largest cryptocurrency hit a high of $69,202,

topping November 2021's all-time peak of $68,999.99. Investor

interest has increased since the Securities and Exchange

Commission approved 11 spot bitcoin ETFs in late January. It

then traded lower and was last at $68,440.

Bitcoin's meteoric nearly 160% ascent since October, of

which 44% came in February alone, marks a sharp contrast to

2022, when the market was beaten into an 18-month long crypto

winter, plagued by a string of high-profile corporate

bankruptcies and scandal.

In addition to demand from a wider pool of investors,

bitcoin, and crypto generally, has gotten a boost from the

prospect of the Federal Reserve cutting U.S. interest rates,

which often prompts investors to divert capital into assets that

are higher yielding or more volatile.

"The bitcoin all-time high marks a turning point for

crypto," said Nathan McCauley, CEO and co-founder of crypto

platform Anchorage Digital. "Traditional institutions were once

sitting out; today, they are here in full force as the principal

drivers of the crypto bull market."

Investors have lapped up crypto, mega-cap technology stocks

and investment-grade corporate bonds in particular this year.

Analysts say bitcoin also benefited ahead of April's

so-called halving event - a process that takes place every four

years in which the rate at which tokens are released is cut in

half, along with the rewards given to miners.

Supply of bitcoin is limited to 21 million, of which 19

million have already been mined.

Despite its recent popularity, for many investors, bitcoin

is simply too volatile and lacks enough real-world applications

to be anything other than a speculative asset.

Yet, in addition to the cocktail of flows of money into

ETFs, the prospect of constrained bitcoin supply and an eventual

decline in U.S. interest rates, some companies are adding crypto

to their corporate coffers.

In February, software firm MicroStrategy - a long

time holder of bitcoin - said it had recently bought about 3,000

more bitcoins for $155 million, while social media platform

Reddit also said in a regulatory filing it had bought small

amounts of bitcoin and ether.