On a bitcoin bet, it's the exchanges that will come out ahead, according to Alpha One Capital Partners founder Dan Niles.

"You don't go out and mine for gold, you go ahead and you sell the picks and the shovels," Niles told CNBC's "Squawk Alley" on Monday.

"We don't think it's a real currency, but we think it's going to continue to grow especially the underlying blockchain technology."

and have already started using blockchain technology to improve on food safety, Niles said, and bitcoin futures started trading on official exchanges .

Chip companies and saw a bitcoin bump, too, as the powerhouses GPUs behind the mining of digital currency. But Niles said there's already too much hype around those names to buy in.

The coins are fast approaching a bubble, he said, and the thing with bubbles is, "they can always go a lot higher than you anticipated, then you get a shakeout, and then things start to grow."

"We've got a shakeout coming at some point."