Bitcoin is “not a bubble,” Nasdaq has said citing five reasons demonstrating why Bitcoin price is nothing like Tulip Mania.

Increasing adoption as legal tender, merchant acceptance and an investment device for “distressed” economies are among the signs Bitcoin is only just starting out rather than peaking, the investment giant wrote Wednesday.

“In all fairness, the returns that Bitcoin and its digital peers in the crypto assets space are experiencing have not been seen since the day and age of the Internet bubble in the late 1990s,” it stated.

“However, Bitcoin has very different fundamentals than early Internet stocks and a much more promising growth trajectory.”

2017 has seen major adoption drives for the virtual currency, both deliberate - such as in Japan - or accidental, such as in Venezuela and India.

Resilience to FUD

Countering no shortage of criticism from traditional financial circles that Bitcoin’s price had grown too quickly and would inevitably crash, Nasdaq reiterated that in the long term, things were only beginning.

“Five years ago, if you would have asked the average person on the street what Bitcoin is, they would have most likely given you a bewildered look. Today, most people have at least heard of Bitcoin, and many even know that one Bitcoin is worth more than an ounce of gold,” it continued.

The new-found faith in Bitcoin and its maturing as a medium of exchange has become apparent in its increasing resilience to ‘FUD’ or other bad news.

Mainstream forecasters now predict further upward momentum for prices, with TradingView eyeing a new all-time high of $6,800 for November despite the uncertainty surrounding the SegWit2x hard fork.