The warnings have been numerous in recent months: the "bubble" of bitcoin will burst.

Even so, the price of this virtual currency has grown and grown in the last 12 months, to such an extent that a single bitcoin already costs around US$10,000, a figure that reached for the first time this Tuesday.

A year ago it was worth US$753, which means that its value has grown by almost 1,215% and it looks like it will continue to do so.

How is it possible that a coin that does not exist physically and which many people say will end up ruining those who invest in it has had such an increase? For analysts, the answer lies in who has been investing in bitcoins in recent months.

The research firm Autonomous Next points out in the so-called hedge funds that they buy shares and then resell them for profit.

The share of these funds in the purchase of bitcoins has increased from 30 to 130 during 2017, according to Autonomous Next research. That has made the value of bitcoin grow like no other product in the investment market this year, surpassing the profitability offered by large companies like Disney, IBM or McDonald's.

The arrival of these funds has also generated an "avalanche of buyers" around the world, says analyst Nathaniel Popper, author of the book "Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the untold story of misfits and millionaires who are trying to reinvent money.

"They believe they have found a new type of investment that could finally compete with gold as a place to store money outside the control of companies and governments,"Popper says in an article in The New York Times.

Estimates from analysts, such as Charlie Bilello of Pension Partners, indicate that the bitcoin has a current capital of US$160,000, surpassing large companies such as General Electric.

An investment of US$10,000 in bitcoin seven years ago is now worth US$1.1 billion, according to Bilello.

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Three winds in favor

Created in 2009 by a person or group of individuals calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin is the world's best known virtual currency.

However, there are more than 700 coins circulating on the internet and more and more companies are generating their own coins in the large virtual market.

Many of the enthusiasts who have bought crypto coins are attracted by the fact that they are not regulated by governments, large banks or investment funds.
Many who are looking for alternative markets to invest in.

But the big boom in 2017 can be explained by three moments, according to analysts. One is the arrival of investors in Asia, mainly in Japan and South Korea, which made the Japanese firm bitFlyer the largest distributor of bitcoins worldwide, explains Popper.

Another was the arrival of hedge funds created especially for the purpose of investing in bitcoins, but also common hedge funds that are joining the market.

And a third impulse was the announcement of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), one of the largest markets for interest rate, equity and currency investments - of the launch of bitcoin futures.

Futures contracts are an agreement to purchase a good at a presently fixed price, regardless of whether its value rises or falls in the future market.

That's why "the contract will make it easier for financial institutions to connect with the bitcoin market,"says Popper.

The WEC's announcement made the bitcoin one of the biggest increases of the year, rising from US$6,750 to US$9,907 during November.

How could I fall?

One of the principles of crypto coins is that they can be accessed from anywhere in the world, with an internet connection, through exchange firms or selling products or services in exchange.

Virtual currency is stored in virtual wallets that are stored in a database called the blockchain, which is on a network of computers around the world.

Access to hedge funds, on the other hand, is only possible for people with large assets who are admitted by the founders of those funds.

Faced with this shopping frenzy and with the value of the cryptomoney growing to clouds, the expert bitcoin trader Kevin Zhou points out that the price can plummet with a single click.

That will happen when a hedge fund makes a withdrawal of its money:"A leak could be created if a major investor withdraws,"Zhou told The New York Times.

"That could cause a wave of withdrawals,"he says.

Bitcoin skeptics are sharks of the investment world, such as Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase and Warren E. Buffett, who say it is a fraud like the pyramid schemes.

As a market without any regulation, when there are problems there is no one to turn to.

That happened in 2013, when the advance of bitcoin stopped when it was discovered that the biggest bitcoin trader at the time, Mt. Gox, did not have the bitcoins he claimed to own.