Bitcoin crossed $14,000 (\u00a310,460; \u20ac11,870) on Thursday, surging $2,000 in less than 24 hours.<\/p>\n
The cryptocurrency began the year below $1,000 but continues its sharp rise despite warnings of a dangerous bubble.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin hit the latest milestone during early trading in Asia, according to the website Coindesk.com.<\/p>\n
The new record high comes just days before the launch of bitcoin futures on two exchanges, including the world’s largest futures exchange, CME.<\/p>\n
Spread betting firm CMC Markets said the rise had all the symptoms of a bubble market, warning “there is no way to know when the bubble will burst”.<\/p>\n
There are two key traits of Bitcoin: it is digital and it is seen as an alternative currency.<\/p>\n
Unlike the notes or coins in your pocket, it largely exists online.<\/p>\n
Secondly, Bitcoin is not printed by governments or traditional banks.<\/p>\n
A small but growing number of businesses, including Expedia and Microsoft, accept bitcoins – which work like virtual tokens.<\/p>\n
However, the vast majority of users now buy and sell them as a financial investment.<\/p>\n
The digital currency’s rapid ascent from around $1,000 at the start of the year has put it in the spotlight.<\/p>\n
Critics have said Bitcoin is going through a bubble similar to the dotcom boom, whereas others say it is rising in price because it is crossing into the financial mainstream.<\/p>\n
Financial regulators have taken a range of views on the status of digital currencies and their risks.<\/p>\n
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority warned investors in September they could lose all their money if they buy digital currencies issued by firms, known as “initial coin offerings”.<\/p>\n
But last week\u00a0a US regulator agreed to let two traditional exchanges, CME Group and CBOE Global Markets, begin trading in Bitcoin-related financial contracts.<\/p>\n
The announcement from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that it will allow investors to buy and sell “future” contracts in bitcoins – an agreement to buy the crypto-currency, for example, in three months time at a certain price – was seen as a watershed moment for Bitcoin.<\/p>\n
Cambridge Global Payments director of global product and market strategy Karl Schamotta said that move was behind the latest rally: “The perception in households around the world that the CME and the CBOE are providing legitimacy to Bitcoin is really what is driving the massive rally here.”<\/p>\n
But Leonhard Weese, president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong, said the rise in Bitcoin’s value was “mostly motivated by fear of missing out and greed”.<\/p>\n
Bitcoins are created through a complex computer process known as mining, and then monitored by a network of computers across the world.<\/p>\n
A steady stream of about 3,600 new bitcoins are created a day – with about 16.5 million now in circulation from a maximum limit of 21 million.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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