Bitcoin’s arrival on the CBOE futures market on Sunday boosted confidence in the token, with prices rallying to a record high of £14,110 ($18,850) according to CoinDesk. 

On its second day of futures trading, the one-month bitcoin contract dipped to £13,365 ($17,830) – which is still nearly £525 ($700) dollars over its spot price.

According to CoinDesk, the token is directly exchanging hands for cash at £12,822 ($17,106) as of 1.40pm today.

The soaring numbers may be well beyond the price point of casual traders, but investors have been eyeing up the token for potential profit. 

Some analysts, who have followed bitcoin’s meteoric rise since the start of the year, see the latest spike as a sign that appetite for bitcoin is not waning.

Jordan Hiscott, chief trader at ayondo markets, told Express.co.uk: “The demand for this asset is like nothing I have ever seen. 

“There is a constant bias towards buy side flow, maintained for long periods of the trading day, thanks to the huge number of speculation traders and investors.”

By the end of the year, he thinks that the cryptocurrency will continue to grow to the £14,999 ($20,000) per token price point.

But he added that for it to be a true success story for both its investors and the community, it will need to find its place in the mainstream of finances. 

Yet despite bitcoin’s rise of over 1,600 per cent this year alone, analysts and senior investors are split down the middle on the benefits and risks of the token. 

Many point out that the soaring prices are the tell-tale signs that bitcoin is stuck in a price bubble reminiscent of the 17th century Tulip Bubble or the DotCom crash from two decades ago.

Others have struggled to look past bitcoin’s associations with money-laundering and illicit activities in the corners of the so-called dark web.

Banking veteran Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has advised against investing in bitcoin and claimed the value-less “fraud” was purchased by “stupid” investors. 

“The only value of bitcoin is what the other guy'll pay for it,” He told an IFF conference in October. 

"Honestly I think there's a good chance of the buyers out there are out there jazzing it up every day so that maybe you'll buy it too, and take them out."

READ MORE: WHAT ARE BITCOIN FUTURES?

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein appeared more open to the idea of the deregulated online currency, but underlined the inherent risks of bitcoin’s volatility. 

Speaking to Bloomberg, he said that bitcoin’s volatile price fluctuations prevented it from becoming a true store of value.

He said: “If it works out – and it gets more established, and it trades more like a store of value, and it doesn't move up and down 20 percent, and there is liquidity to it – we'll get to it."

Mr Hiscott agreed that bitcoin will need to work out just where it fits in the world of finance, before it becomes a real mainstay for investors.

He said: “I’m pretty sure Bitcoin will be $20,000 by the end of the year, but for it to be truly successful, it will need to decide whether it’s a genuine means of exchange or just a digital store of value.”

Bitcoin appears to still be an attractive option for investors, but the real window of opportunity for investment could be gone. At the moment of its birth, no one could have guessed how well it would perform.

At the start of 2010 the token was trading for around 4 pennies (6 cents). In other terms, buying four bitcoin’s for less than the cost of a packet of crisps, would have bought you a brand new Jaguar F-Type today.

A £74.99 ($100) investment in bitcoin on December 12, 2011, would have yielded £391,021.75 ($521,411) in profit today, according to 99Bitcoins.com.

READ MORE: IS BITCOIN IN A BUBBLE? WILL IT CRASH?

But there is still the risk that this could all come crashing down tomorrow without notice.

Deutsche Bank economist Torsten Slok warned on Monday that the token is en route to become a major risk for the market in 2018.

The economist said: “The worry, of course, that one can have is that it's catching on quite substantially.

"Of course, with the speed with which prices are going up, then you do wonder where prices will be even by the end of 2017. But we do think that in 2018, this, of course, will continue to be a topic."