Bitcoin's share price has soared past the $48,000 mark according to data from CoinDesk, meaning the cryptocurrency is now up by 60 percent in value since the beginning of the year.
It begs the question: how much have those who got in on the ground floor potentially made at this point? Well, basically a lot - but for a more accurate estimation, let's say that $100 of Bitcoin purchased in 2010 could now be worth more than $48 million.
Although the cryptocurrency is currently enjoying an incredible surge in value, it's been a volatile currency for much of its 12-year existence, so investors from back then are very unlikely to have held on all this time.
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If you did invest in Bitcoin when it was first launched in 2009, though, your returns could be in the millions or billions, because the initial value of the asset was $0.
"It's the best-performing asset of the last decade for sure," said Daniel Polotsky, CEO of Bitcoin ATM company CoinFlip.
The value of Bitcoin rose to ten cents in 2010 and so if you'd invested then you'd also have potentially made a mint by now. For example, $100 would've bought you about 1,000 Bitcoins which, at Thursday's high would've been worth more than $48m - assuming you'd held onto the asset the entire time.
It should be pointed out, of course, that although there have been winners in the Bitcoin boom, there have also been plenty of losers who have invested and cashed out at the wrong time, much like any other market.
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However, thanks to the recent high profile support, some forecasters see Bitcoin rising as high as $55,000 or $60,000 by the end of 2021, while others say it could even reach $500,000 per coin one day.
Having quadrupled in value during 2020, there were questions around whether the currency could continue its miraculous surge, but prominent support from several notable names has helped the surge continue unabated.
Most recently, BNY Mellon, America's oldest bank and a major custody provider, said that it would begin to finance Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
"BNY Mellon is proud to be the first global bank to announce plans to provide an integrated service for digital assets," Roman Regelman, CEO of asset servicing and head of digital at BNY Mellon, said in a statement on Thursday.
"Growing client demand for digital assets, maturity of advanced solutions, and improving regulatory clarity present a tremendous opportunity for us to extend our current service offerings to this emerging field."
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This comes off the back of news that Mastercard has also declared it will start to provide support for some cryptocurrencies this year, while Elon Musk's company Tesla announced it was to invest $1.5 billion into Bitcoin earlier in the week.
At the moment, at least, it looks like it's here to stay.
Featured Image Credit: PA