Bitcoin and Ethereum: Make Way for Amazon?

It's been more than 15 years since the dot-com boom, when investors were able to throw a dart at their newspaper and seemingly double their money in a matter of weeks. Cryptocurrency returns in 2017 have somewhat brought back that nostalgia, but to an even wilder degree.

Since the year began, the aggregate value of all cryptocurrencies has surged from $17.65 billion to as high as $200.9 billion, just a few days prior. That's a return in just 10 months and less than a week of 1,038%! Comparably, the broad-based S&P 500 has taken decades to deliver a tenfold return for investors.

Leading the way for virtual currencies is bitcoin, whose market cap recently topped $120 billion, which is actually higher than quite a few Dow Jones Industrial Average components. Ethereum, the virtual currency sidekick of sorts to bitcoin, hasn't done too badly, either. It's up about 3,600% since the year began.

Source: Fool.com