Investing.com - The price of the digital currency bitcoin rose above the $9,600 level for the first time in its nine-year history on Monday, closing in on its next major threshold of $10,000.
On the U.S.-based Bitfinex exchange, Bitcoin was at $9,575.00 by 06:42 AM ET (11:42 AM GMT) after rising as high as $9,760.70 earlier.
Bitcoin, which started 2017 at about $1,000 and broke through $5,000 in October has risen almost 900% so far this year as investors in the digital currency shrug off warnings of a bubble.
At current prices bitcoin has a total market capitalization of around $160 billion, exceeding that of IBM, Disney and McDonald’s.
Trade this year has been volatile even amid the big rally, with five separate corrections of more than 20% all giving way to subsequent rallies.
Bitcoin, which is known for sharp swings, has tended to rebound quickly from pullbacks.
The latest decline came earlier this month, when bitcoin fell more than 25% over a four day period before quickly recovering.
The decision by CME group, the world's largest derivative exchange operator to launch trading on bitcoin futures as soon as next month has fueled buying, but analysts have warned that an asset bubble is building.
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.
Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading, Bitcoin Cash was last at $1,616.50, down around 6.0% while Bitcoin Gold was down around 1.0% to $364.00.
Ethereum, the second most valuable cryptocurrency by market cap after bitcoin, also hit record highs on Monday. It was last at $472.61, after rising as high as $491.89 earlier. It is up more than 5,200% for the year to date.