BITCOIN may become the new gold, as the cryptocurrency is seen as a more reliable, long-term way to store wealth by some experts.
An analyst at banking giant JP Morgan believes that Bitcoin may become a solid asset class.
Both Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CMO) have announced its plans to start offering Bitcoin futures this month.
Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, JP Morgan analyst told the Daily Telegraph that Bitcoin: "has the potential to elevate cryptocurrencies to an emerging asset class.
"The prospective launch of Bitcoin futures contracts by established exchanges in particular has the potential to add legitimacy and thus increase the appeal of the cryptocurrency market to both retail and institutional investors."
He believes this will add to the usefulness of Bitcoin.
People may not entirely understand the blockchain technology used for Bitcoin but it does make transactions secure.
Bitcoin has not over taken gold in terms of investment or total value in circulation but it does hold the potential to match or even rise above the use of gold.
As it stands the total value of all Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies is now more than $300 billion compared to the $1.5 trillion for all of the gold outside central banks.
Mr Panigirtzoglou has stated that a net $6Billion has been invested in cryptocurrencies since 2009.
However, he did add that that Bitcoin will be affected by other cryptocurrencies. He said:"Any given cryptocurrency does face competition from other cryptocurrencies and this poses a risk to their individual valuation."
This is in stark contrast to Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan chief executive who has been a vocal high profile critic of Bitcoin.
Earlier this month he said he would fire anyone who was trading Bitcoin claiming that the cryptocurrency "would blow up".
In 2015 Mr Dimon said: "It's just not going to happen. You are wasting your time."