The speculative mania on anything related to cryptocurrencies is happening again in the new year.

Chanticleer Holdings (BURG), an owner of burger restaurants, said Tuesday it will use blockchain-related technology for its customer rewards program. The company also owns 9 Hooter's restaurants and is a minority investor in Hooter's of America.

"We wanted to expand our existing loyalty program with something that really changes the way our customers can leverage their rewards; Mobivity Merit is real cryptocurrency, leveraging the same infrastructure and principles of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, and more, and will enable our customers to make use of their rewards in entirely new ways," Michael Pruitt, chairman, president and CEO of Chanticleer Holdings, said in a release.

Chanticleer Holdings rose nearly 50 percent in Tuesday trading to almost $4 a share. The Nasdaq-traded stock had a market value of only $8 million through Friday so it's clearly buyer beware.

Several small stocks captured the speculative imagination of traders last month with this trick.

Longfin surged 1,342 percent in two days in mid-December to a market value of more than $3 billion after buying a cryptocurrency company with no revenue. The rally spurred the company's CEO to say "this market cap is not justified."

Perhaps most eye-popping of all, Long Island Iced Tea shares rose 183 percent on Dec. 21 after it announced it is changing its name to "Long Blockchain Corp." The company said it will focus on investing in the technology behind bitcoin.