Investing.com - The price of the digital currency bitcoin was hovering around the $10,000 level on Thursday a day after it surged to record highs past $11,000 before falling to near $9000 in whipsaw trade.
On the U.S.-based Bitfinex exchange, Bitcoin was at $10,067.00 by 04:40 AM ET (09:40 AM GMT), after rising as high as $10,540.00 earlier.
On Wednesday, bitcoin rallied to a fresh all-time high of $11,427.17, gaining as much as 15% before tumbling as much as 21% to a low of $9,001 amid a flash crash, before rebounding.
Bitcoin, which is known for sharp swings, has tended to rebound quickly from pullbacks.
Bitcoin’s price has risen dramatically in 2017. While it took almost four months to climb from $1,000 to a closing price of over $2,000, it soared to $10,000 from $9,000 in around three days.
Its meteoric rise has prompted warnings of an increasingly volatile bubble amid signs that it is moving from the periphery of finance towards the mainstream.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently called bitcoin a "fraud" that would ultimately blow up and UBS branded bitcoin a "speculative bubble" in a recent note to investors.
The price has been boosted by last month’s decision by CME Group (NASDAQ:CME), the world's largest derivative exchange operator, to launch bitcoin futures by the end of the year in response to demand from some of its largest users.
On Wednesday the Wall Street Journal reported that both Nasdaq and Cantor Fitzgerald are also looking to launch bitcoin derivatives.
A recent proliferation of initial coin offerings, in which start-ups create a new virtual coin or token and offer it for public sale have also fueled buying.
Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading, Bitcoin Cash was last at $1,339.90, while Bitcoin Gold was at $287.74.
Ethereum, the second most valuable cryptocurrency by market cap after bitcoin, was at $449.19 after rising to a record high of $518.00 on Wednesday.