The price of bitcoin surged through $4,000 for the first time over the weekend thanks to increased demand stemming from tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Bitcoin hit $4,224.80 in trading early Sunday morning as demand surged from Japan, along with South Korea and China. Investors apparently were looking to park their money in perceived safe digital investments as the saber-rattling between North Korea and the United States continues. “Rising worries about North Korea’s nuclear threat have sent investors flocking to perceived safe-havens and alternative assets,” CNBC reported.

The bulk of the additional demand came from Japan, which accounted for nearly 46 percent of global trade volume, up from about a third a day ago, while South Korea and China accounted for 12 percent each.

Bitcoin has continued to hit new milestones in 2017. Starting the year at $997.69, by February the price hit $1,206.02, breaking its previous longstanding record dating back to 2013. That wasn’t close to the end of the surge with the price hitting $1,426.54 in in May before breaking through the $3,000 mark only one week ago.

The cryptocurrency’s ongoing price surges, while clearly welcomed by investors, have others saying that bitcoin is going through a bubble that is bound to crash eventually.

“It’s just created new value out of nowhere,” Rob Moffat, a partner at Balderton Capital, told VentureBeat. “There’s no fundamentals behind any of this — it’s all based on public perception, so you can start to see some really strange phenomena.” Investor Howard Marks concurred, saying that the bitcoin market has all the signs of being like the tech boom of the late 1990s in that it is an “unfounded fad … based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it.”

Although bitcoin may well be in the middle of a massive bubble, the argument that it’s something to which people ascribe a value and therefore it is risky also describes traditional fiat currency as well — as the people of Venezuela realize.

As of Sunday evening, bitcoin had settled down from its high and was trading at $4,139.29.

Photo: Pixabay