There's no doubt that people are in a frenzy over cryptocurrencies. Not just bitcoin, but ether and litecoin and a number of others have seen huge gains this year.

The interest in cryptocurrencies as a whole, and the hundreds of thousands of people signing up to platforms like Coinbase, has led to investors pouring money into other digital coins.

But I feel there is a huge misunderstanding among both people trading cryptocurrencies, as well as critics. People will look at many cryptocurrencies and say, "this is madness." They're not wrong. There is bubble right now in a lot of these digital currencies with people trying to make a quick buck.

And many people trading will no doubt just see ethereum or litecoin in their app and decide to buy it because it's cheaper that bitcoin, and hope that either could be the next big thing.

Both groups – critics and uneducated investors – are in danger of missing the bigger point. That is, there are nuances between the different cryptocurrencies, and in the long-term that could be a big source of value.

Bitcoin originally billed itself as the "peer-to-peer version of electronic cash" for online payments able to circumvent the banks. But transactions in bitcoin are extremely slow — taking on average nearly 300 minutes — and there is not widespread use. In this instance, it may be hard to value it.