A bitcoin sign is seen during Riga Comm 2017 fair in Riga Thomson Reuters 
 
 Bitcoin passed $10,000 for the first time on Tuesday evening. 
 
 Cryptocurrency passed $11,000 per coin on Wednesday lunchtime. 
 
 LONDON — The price of bitcoin is leaping after passing the symbolically significant level of $10,000 on Tuesday evening. 
 
 Bitcoin passed $10,000 per coin at around 6.30 p.m. GMT (1.30 p.m ET) on Tuesday after flirting with the level all day. The level was seen as symbolically significant and, now it's passed $10,000, the price is motoring. 
 
 Bitcoin hit $11,000 per coin at 1.55 p.m. GMT (8.55 a.m. ET), up over 10% on the day. Markets Insider Charles Hayter, the CEO of CryptoCompare, called breaching the $10,000 level a "seminal moment" for the cryptocurrency. 
 
 He said in an email: "$10k represents the closing of the second cycle in Bitcoin which has drawn the interest of institutional investors who have so far been constrained from trading by their remits. This is starting to change as more sophisticated and regulated instruments are made available. This will lead to Bitcoins third cycle." 
 
 Mati Greenspan, an analyst with trading platform eToro who follows the crypto space closely, said in an email: "Wall Street's resident bitcoin buff Mike Novogratz has moved his target to $40,000 by the end of 2018, stating that not only is this a bubble but that the bubble is going to get a lot bigger from here due to the global nature of this unique asset. 
 
 "Whether it is indeed a bubble or something else entirely remains to be seen. What I can tell you from my conversations with clients is that more and more people are starting to see bitcoin as money and the potential to replace the current fiat central banking system that has gotten out of hand." 
 
 Elsewhere in the cryptocurrency space, Litecoin, the sixth largest cryptocurrency by value, has reached a new all-time high of $103.46 overnight. 
 
 The entire cryptocurrency market is now worth over $330 billion, just two days after passing $300 billion for the first time. The market has rallied hugely this year despite some people warning that the market is in a bubble. ||||| FILE - In this Monday, April 7, 2014 file photo, Bitcoin logos are displayed at the Inside Bitcoins conference and trade show, in New York. The price of bitcoin, the most widely used virtual currency,... (Associated Press) 
 
 LONDON (AP) — The price of bitcoin surged through $10,000 on Wednesday, adding to its ten-fold jump in value this year and fueling a debate as to whether the virtual currency is gaining mainstream acceptance or is merely a bubble waiting to burst. 
 
 But as soon as bitcoin went through $10,000, it surged past $11,000, only to plummet from those lofty levels. The cost of buying one bitcoin as measured by the website Coindesk was hovering around $9,800, and was as low as $9,300 on Wednesday afternoon. A price of one bitcoin had been roughly $1,000 at the beginning of the year. 
 
 The vertiginous rise in the price of bitcoin and other virtual currencies this year has divided the financial community on their merits and whether — or when — the value might come crashing back down. 
 
 The CEO of JPMorgan Chase has called bitcoin a "fraud," as it is not based on anything other than software code and is not backed by any monetary authority. 
 
 Other executives, including International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, say virtual currencies should not be dismissed and could have useful applications, such as a means of payment in countries with unstable currencies. 
 
 Some countries, like China, have tried to stifle bitcoin exchanges. But in a move that gave further credibility to the virtual currency, the U.S. exchange operator CME Group said last month that it plans to open a futures market for the currency before the end of the year, if it can get approval from regulators. 
 
 Bitcoin was created about a decade ago as an alternative to government-issued currencies. Transactions allow anonymity, which has made it popular with people who want to keep their financial activity, and their identities, private. 
 
 The digital coins are created by so-called "miners," who operate computer farms that verify other users' transactions by solving complex mathematical puzzles. These miners receive bitcoin in exchange. Bitcoin can be converted to cash when deposited into accounts at prices set in online trading. 
 
 Whereas virtual currencies were initially used primarily as a method of payment, in recent months they have become a hot investment among speculators. 
 
 Daniele Bianchi, an assistant professor of finance at the Warwick Business School in England, says that the price increases are due to rising demand but also to the fact that the supply of bitcoins is kept fixed. There are currently only 21 million that can be mined in total. 
 
 Bianchi also noted that trading in bitcoin is becoming more professional and open to the general public. He believes virtual currencies are "here to stay" and expects the price to rise higher still. 
 
 "The increasing demand pressure from investors and speculators makes the case for an even further increase in bitcoin prices in the near future," he said. 
 
 Others are far more skeptical. 
 
 Neil Wilson, a senior market analyst at ETX Capital in London, says bitcoin is "following the playbook for a speculative bubble to the letter." 
 
 A new market enjoys a boom when professional investors start entering the market. That's followed by euphoria as others rush in to partake in the gains. Wilson says bitcoin could rise a lot further, but says it is merely a question of when, not if, the bubble bursts. 
 
 "This sort of thing never, ever lasts," he said. ||||| Bitcoin's velocity a sign it's parabolic, and parabolic moves don't last: Jim Cramer 10:02 AM ET Wed, 29 Nov 2017 | 00:56 
 
 Bitcoin's velocity is a sign that its surge is "parabolic," and that could mean the cryptocurrency's rally won't last, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Wednesday. 
 
 Cramer spoke moments after the digital currency spiked through $11,000, according to industry site CoinDesk, hours after surpassing the $10,000 level for the first time. Bitcoin has surged more than 1,000 percent this year. 
 
 "Even if you believe in bitcoin, the velocity of the move is a sign that it is parabolic. And parabolic moves don't last," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." 
 
 "And I know that when I look at that, I say to myself, 'OK, if I owned it, what would I really be doing?'" Cramer added. "And the answer is when you have that big of gain you have to take some profits. That velocity is crazy." 
 
 Cramer's comments on bitcoin resembled that of closely followed trader Art Cashin. Cashin, UBS director of floor operations at the New York Stock Exchange, said Monday that the cryptocurrency has reached "parabolic" levels, and the cryptocurrency has some at the Federal Reserve worried. 
 
 "I think we're in the fear-of-missing-out phase now," Cashin said on "Squawk on the Street." "I think initially there was some concern. I am told — and take this with a huge grain of salt — that the movement is even beginning to worry some people in the Federal Reserve." 
 
 Earlier Wednesday, William Dudley, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said the Fed is exploring the idea of its own digital currency, according to Dow Jones. 
 
 Bitcoin has risen as exchanges such as the CME Group and Cboe Options announced plans to launch futures contracts for the currency. 
 
 —CNBC's Evelyn Cheng and Reuters contributed to this report. ||||| LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin zoomed past $11,000 to hit a record high for the sixth day in a row on Wednesday after gaining more than $1,000 in just 12 hours, stoking concerns that a rapidly swelling bubble could be set to burst in spectacular fashion. 
 
 After soaring more than 1,000 percent since the start of the year, bitcoin rose as much as 15 percent on Wednesday. 
 
 It topped $10,000 for the first time in early Asia trading, before surging above $11,000 less than 12 hours later to reach $11,395 on Luxembourg-based Bitstamp BTC=BTSP, one of the largest and most liquid cryptocurrency exchanges, and then dipping back below $11,000. (Graphic: Bitcoin's blistering ascent - tmsnrt.rs/2AHKJPd) 
 
 Bitcoin’s rapid ascent has led to countless warnings that it has reached bubble territory. 
 
 But the warnings have had little effect, with dozens of new crypto-hedge funds entering the market and retail investors piling in. (Graphic: Bitcoin's blistering ascent Image - tmsnrt.rs/2AeMjHe) 
 
 London-based Blockchain.info, one of the biggest global bitcoin wallet-providers, told Reuters on Wednesday that it had added a record number of new users on Tuesday, with more than 100,000 customers signing up, taking the total number to more than 19 million. (Graphic: Bitcoin price rockets - reut.rs/2zPekGm) 
 
 The evidence suggests that few of the users are buying bitcoin to use it as a means of exchange, but are speculating to increase their capital. 
 
 “What’s happening right now has nothing to do with bitcoin’s functionality as a currency – this is pure mania that’s taken hold,” said Garrick Hileman, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School. 
 
 “This is very much a bubble that will very much correct itself at some point and people need to be very careful.” 
 
 Hileman, who last week gave a lecture to the Bank of England on the risks of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, also flagged the risk of the whole market collapsing entirely. 
 
 “There’s always the possibility that some fundamental cryptographic flaw that we can’t solve craters the whole space, or that regulators unite and decide this represents systemic risk and actually could trigger the next financial crisis,” he said. 
 
 Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins placed on Dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration 
 
 “EXIT RAMPS” 
 
 Created in 2008, bitcoin uses encryption and a blockchain database that enables the fast and anonymous transfer of funds outside of a conventional centralized payment system. 
 
 It has far outstripped gains seen in any traditional asset classes or currencies this year. It rise accelerated in recent months as exchanges such as the CME Group Inc (CME.O) and the Chicago Board Options Exchange announced plans to offer futures contracts for the cryptocurrency. 
 
 Skeptics say it a classic speculative bubble with no relation to real financial market activity or the economy - most famously JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon, who labeled it a “fraud”. 
 
 But even Dimon and others who say bitcoin represents a bubble - now the consensus view among mainstream investors - do not deny its price rise could still have further to go. 
 
 “It’s got all the shapings of your tulip bubble chart (but) that tells you nothing about where that price line could go depending on the number of people who wish to own it,” Standard Life’s head of investment strategy, Andrew Milligan, said on Wednesday. “Who is to say it doesn’t reach $100,000?” 
 
 In some emerging markets, bitcoin had hit well over $10,000 previously. In Zimbabwe, bitcoin traded at $17,875 on Monday. Tuesday’s price in Zimbabwe was not available. 
 
 In South Korean exchanges, too, bitcoin was already close to $11,000 or higher early this week. 
 
 The fact that bitcoin now provides “exit ramps” from national currencies that were becoming easier to use, Hileman said, could exacerbate any future financial crisis. Coordinated regulatory action might therefore be necessary in order to stave off an “economic calamity”, he said. 
 
 Despite its mushrooming value, however, Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said on Wednesday bitcoin was not big enough to pose a risk to the global economy. 
 
 Mike Novogratz, a former macro hedge fund manager at Fortress Investment Group, said in a Reuters Investment Summit earlier this month that mainstream institutional investors were about six to eight months from adopting bitcoin.
– What goes up must come down. CNBC reports that bitcoin passed the $11,000 mark for the first time Wednesday just hours after surpassing $10,000 for the first time. Wednesday was the sixth day in a row the cryptocurrency hit a record high, increasing its value 15%, according to Reuters. But later Wednesday, the value of a bitcoin plummeted to as low as $9,300, the AP reports. Regardless, that's still a massive increase over the $1,000 value of a bitcoin at the start of the year. And the CEO of CryptoCompare tells Business Insider the passing of $10,000 was a "seminal moment" for bitcoin. The cryptocurrency market as a whole is now worth more than $330 billion total. The recent meteoric rise of bitcoin has brought increasing warnings of a bubble set to burst. "Even if you believe in bitcoin, the velocity of the move is a sign that it is parabolic," CNBC's Jim Cramer says. "And parabolic moves don't last." It appears few people are actually using bitcoin as currency, instead stockpiling it in hopes of increasing their capital. “What’s happening right now has nothing to do with bitcoin’s functionality as a currency—this is pure mania that’s taken hold,” research fellow Garrick Hileman tells Reuters. Hileman says "people need to be very careful" about the coming burst. But it appears few are heeding his message. One provider signed up more than 300,000 new bitcoin users over the Thanksgiving holiday. And one analyst predicts the bubble is going to get a lot bigger still—say $40,000 by the end of 2018.