The cryto-currency continues to attract attention and does so again by pushing above $4,000 per unit.

The controversial currency bitcoin refuses to die - perhaps to the angst of central bankers and policymakers - and has passed over the $4,000 level for the first time in its history.

Bitcoin traded at around $4,033 yesterday, according to the news and research site CoinDesk, up 3.1 per cent on the day, and up more than 25 per cent in August (source: Wall Street Journal).

Unlike conventionl equities and other securites, the currency trades electronically 24-hours a day and during weekends.

The WSJ noted that the latest gains appear to be at the expense of other digital currencies, many of which have been issued just this year in a developing trend called “initial coin offerings.”

Bitcoin has captured the public imagination because it shares, so its advocates say, the same quality as precious metals in that there is only so much of it that can exist, contrasting with state-managed fiat currencies. Recent massive quantitative easing programmes of central banks have encouraged interest in non-state currencies, amid worries of an eventual takeoff in inflation.

There is interest in Bitcoin not just because of the currency itself but the distributed ledger technology to which it is connected: blockchain. To see an article about how wealth management views the potential of blockchain, see here.