It's surged to the cusp of its all time high in 2017 on.

Backers are hoping there's less chance of a crash this time round, but it's not yet made it to the mainstream on, analysts say.

Bitcoin is still far from a safe bet, Reuters Cryptocurrency correspondent Tom Wilson.

So even though we've seen the embrace off some big companies like PayPal or like Facebook off digital coin technology of Bitcoin of other Cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is still very much on the fringes.

For many large investors, pension funds don't really like it.

Large asset managers don't really like it, and that's because there are still many risks associated with it.

It's still volatile.

It's still poorly regulated.

There's still a big chance investors could lose their money very quickly.

Bitcoin soared 160% this year.

The steep trajectory of its rally echoes that of 2017, when a retail led buying spree pushed it to nearly $20,000 only for it to crash more than 50% a month later.

But 2020 isn't the wild West of three years ago.

Fans of Bitcoin say that this rally is different to the 2017 bubble.

That's because the structure of Bitcoin markets has changed quite considerably.

Now there are larger investors involved in the space instead of on overwhelming majority of retail investors.

At the same time, there are more sophisticated derivative markets so investors can hedge their positions.

Onda also a wider variety of custody services so investors can safely store their digital clients.

It's easier these days for professional investors to seek exposure to crypto.

Their involvement, the argument goes, may lead to more liquidity and less volatility.

As regulation develops, big names are moving into the market.

Now you're starting to see large companies such as PayPal open their networks to cryptocurrencies.

Governments at the same time has started to become or interested in digital coin technology.

They're looking at issuing their own Cryptocurrencies own a central bank digital currency.

Bitcoin is also benefiting from increased appetite for riskier assets following government and central bank stimulus measures to combat for sessions.

Yet for all the improvements, it remains highly volatile, sector is still opaque, trading data remains patchy and concerns over market manipulation are rife.

2020 could just be another Bitcoin bubble waiting to pop, although regulation has improved over the last few years, in particular with areas such as anti money laundering being strengthened.

It's still pretty unclear exactly what the legal status of Bitcoin is in many countries, and this means for investors there are there are risks about compliance.

There are risks about checking the background off people that they do business or, indeed, platforms on which they're buying and selling Bitcoin.