NEW DELHI: Bitcoin surpassed $16,000 for the first time ever on Thursday, ahead of the launch of Bitcoin futures on Chicago-based CBOE this coming Sunday.The cryptocurrency hit a 24-hour high of $ 16,110.51 per unit and 24-hour low of $13,083.84, as of 20.45 IST, data available on coingecko.com suggested.The e-currency has been on a roll ever since the beginning of this year. The digital currency has zoomed over 1400 per cent year-to-date to hit the all-time high level of $15,000-mark in Thursday's trade from a sub-$1,000 level at the beginning of the year.Extraordinary returns delivered by the cryptocurrency has made it the talk of the town.Pankaj Jain, a New York-based bitcoin investor in an interaction with ETMarkets.com advised small investors not to invest more than 1 to 3 per cent of their net worth in cryptocurrencies. High-net worth investors should refrain from investing more than 5 to 10 per cent of their investable money in this digital currency, he said.Jain said that new investors to first understand the technology or mathematics before jumping the gun.That said, Billionaire hedge fund legend Mike Novogratz in a recent interview to a media channel said the cryptocurrency would ‘easily reach’ $40,000-mark by 2018.“Bitcoin could be at $40,000 at the end of 2018,” he said on CNBC’s Fast Money programme.”Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday warned the public of the risks of virtual currencies (VCs). The central bank said: “In the wake of significant spurt in the valuation of many VCs and rapid growth in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), RBI reiterates the concerns".The crytocurrency, which came into being in 2009 as a bit of encrypted software and has no central bank backing it and no legal exchange rate, has soared from a 2017 low of $752 in mid-January to surge sharply over the past month.