The booming Bitcoin market is minting millionaires.
The digital currency, which trades just like gold or silver, reached about $240 yesterday, rising more than 25 percent from Monday’s price.
The soaring market, which took off from about $40 a Bitcoin just a month ago, is causing a virtual gold rush among investors, venture capitalists, hedge funds managers and bankers.
The spike in price has generated some real-world wealth, according to a number of investors who are sitting on piles of the virtual cash.
One such Bitcoin speculator, who asked to remain nameless for security reasons, said his initial investment of $20,000 has topped $500,000 in the past five months.
The investor, a computer security expert from Miami, said he isn’t cashing out just yet.
“I probably will not divest until I become at least a millionaire,” he said. “I’m not willing to let go.”
Bitcoins are “mined” using a sophisticated algorithm, which limits the total quantity of the currency. There have been more than 11 million Bitcoins mined, making it a more than $2.5 billion market.
“I don’t like to speculate, but there are some people who think it could reach a million dollars a Bitcoin,” said Gavin Andresen, lead developer of the Bitcoin Project. “There are also some really smart people who think that we are in a bubble.”
The recent Bitcoin run-up has been attributed to the cash crunch in Cyprus, a devalued yen and other world fiat concerns, and also coincides with rising media and public interest.
“It’s helping me do things I wasn’t able to do before, like put a down payment on a house and put some money away,” Charlie Shrem, the CEO of online Bitcoin exchange BitInstant and an investor, told The Post yesterday,
“And I have friends who are Bitcoin millionaires telling me they love me because I told them to invest,” he added.