Virtual currency Bitcoin is at a record high of $9,700 after jumping 4.5% so far on Monday.
The move takes it to 20% above the level it stood at on Friday, according to the Luxembourg-based Bitcoin exchange, Bitstamp.
It started the year at around $1,000.
Virtual currencies are largely unregulated and bypass traditional banking systems. Their growth is of increasing concern to international regulators.
China and South Korea have banned any new virtual currency launches and have been shutting down exchanges on which they are traded.
JP Morgan Chase’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, described Bitcoin at a recent conference as “a fraud”.
“It’s just not a real thing, eventually it will be closed,” he said.
Currencies such as Bitcoin use blockchain, which is an online ledger of transactions maintained by a network of anonymous computers on the internet.
They are not backed by any government, nor central bank and therefore there is no-one responsible for backing their value.
Source: BBC News