The bitcoin bulls are running.

Bitcoin's value has been skyrocketing of late, and on Tuesday it broke the $10,000-per-coin mark for the first time, just two days after passing $9,000. The cryptocurrency was trading at $10,034 as of this writing, an increase of more than 900 percent since the beginning of the year.

Tuesday's trading price gives bitcoin a market capitalization of $168 billion, greater than the vast majority of S&P 500 companies, including Dow 30 components Boeing, Disney and GE.

Since its founding in 2009, bitcoin has made a name for itself by allowing for anonymous transactions. The digital currency is now accepted by more than 100,000 merchants worldwide, including Microsoft, Dish and Subway.

The cryptocurrency has experienced a massive run in 2017. On Jan. 1 this year, bitcoin was priced at just under $1,000. Still, the cryptocurrency's lack of government backing and regulation has led to volatility, and the milestone comes amid growing concern bitcoin is on the edge of a bubble.

"This is a bubble and there is a lot of froth. This is going to be the biggest bubble of our lifetimes," hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz told Bloomberg at a cryptocurrency conference Tuesday in New York.

Novogratz predicted last week that the cryptocurrency would end the year at $10,000, according to Bloomberg, while Fundstrat's Thomas Lee doubled his price target to $11,500 by the middle of 2018.

iHate: CNET looks at how intolerance is taking over the internet.

Special Reports: CNET's in-depth features in one place.