Singapore, Dec 7 (AFP) Bitcoin ploughed past USD 14,000to a fresh record today as investors continued to pile in,triggering a warning the cryptocurrency was "like a chargingtrain with no brakes" that would inevitably slip back.
It touched a new high of USD 14,475 before slipping backto USD 14,328 in Asian afternoon trade, according to BloombergNews.
The rally came just a day after the virtual currency,which has been used to buy everything from an ice cream to apint of beer, hit the USD 12,000 mark for the first time.
Bitcoin -- which came into being in 2009 as a bit ofencrypted software and has no central bank backing it -- hasrisen from a 2017 low of USD 752 in mid-January, and surgeddramatically in the past month.
The increased interest has been driven by growingacceptance among traditional investors of an innovation onceconsidered the preserve of computer nerds and financialexperts.
US regulators last week cleared the way for Bitcoinfutures to trade on major exchanges, including the world'sbiggest futures centre the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
But some, including the US Federal Reserve, have warnedagainst dabbling in Bitcoin as it could threaten financialstability, and fears of a bubble have increased as the pricehas soared.
"Bitcoin now seems like a charging train with no brakes,"said Shane Chanel, from Sydney-based ASR Wealth Advisers.
"There is an unfathomable amount of new participants pilinginto the cryptocurrency market."But he warned: "Once the hype slows down, we will mostcertainly see some sort of correction."Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG, alsopredicted "downside moves" in future.
"When the price does turn and there is confusion, evenpanic.... then watch the short sellers come out in droves," hesaid.
Transactions happen when heavily encrypted codes arepassed across a computer network.
Bitcoin and other virtual currencies use blockchain,which records transactions that are updated in real time on anonline ledger and maintained by a network of computers.
But it has also suffered controversies. In 2014 majorTokyo-based Bitcoin exchange MtGox collapsed after admittingthat 850,000 coins -- worth around USD 480 million at the time-- had disappeared from its vaults.(AFP)AMS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.