A Bitcoin Exuberant Price Over 10,000.

Nothing stops bitcoin at this moment.

The cryptocurrency has passed the $ 11,000 for the first time, growing by more than 1000% since the beginning of this year.

The bitcoin, which for a long time was rejected by the traditional investors and qualified as a turbid domain for pranksters and criminals, has gained more and more acceptance this year, helping to boost its value more and more.

The currency has been breaking milestones at an accelerated pace: it spent $ 8,000 just two weeks ago and $ 9,000 for the first time this weekend. Early this Wednesday, in Hong Kong, it was trading at $ 10,800.

Its stratospheric growth this year has caused bubble alerts. But experts say that gains in recent weeks have been driven by expectations that large professional investors - such as hedge funds and asset managers - are preparing to put their money in the digital currency.

Next month, investors should be able to exchange bitcoins futures through the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which is expected to give more legitimacy to the virtual currency among professional investors. Futures allow traders to bet on the future price of assets such as currencies, metals and agricultural products.

Bitcoin is one of the many cryptocurrencies that have proliferated in recent years. Unlike the dollar or the pound, these virtual "currencies" are not tied to a central bank. Instead, they are "mined" by computers that use complex algorithms.

The decentralized nature of bitcoin is what appeals to many of its enthusiasts and disturbs many of its critics.

That also makes it more difficult to settle arguments about whether the huge gains of this year's currency equals a bubble. Unlike equities, its value is not based on dividend earnings or payments, and unlike bonds, it does not pay investors a steady stream of income.

And the global bitcoin market, which is only about 170 billion dollars, is still relatively small. The S & P 500 stock index, for example, is worth more than 20 billion.

"What is fundamental in the value of bitcoin? No one knows the answer to this question, "says Arthur Hayes, executive director of Bitmex, a bitcoin derivatives trading company in Hong Kong.

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Experts said previously that the $ 10,000 mark could be a key milestone for the digital currency. Hayes and other industry experts predict that advertising around bitcoin will continue to attract big investors and help push prices much higher.

"Institutional investors ... will start pulling the trigger in 2018," says Hayes.

The virtual currency has attracted the mockery of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who said it was a "fraud" and would eventually explode. Warren Buffett has also expressed his skepticism, warning about a "real bubble".

But other financial leaders have defended it. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said last month that people "were also skeptical when paper money displaced gold."

But the road to the $ 11,000 of bitcoin has not been easy. This currency has suffered periods of greater volatility.

In September it fell by 20% after the Chinese government took strong measures against the offers of the digital currency, causing the exchanges of bitcoins to close their doors.

Earlier this month, it fell more than 30% in a few days, before recovering quickly, after apparently investors were trading rival cryptocurrencies.