Stay on Top of Emerging Technology Trends Get updates impacting your industry from our GigaOm Research Community

Remember the old days when one Bitcoin traded for 200 US dollars? Well, those days were just a few weeks ago and now the virtual currency is on a wild new surge that has already taken it far above $300 — here’s a graph from exchange site Bitstamp, which is listing the price at $325 on Friday morning:

Other exchanges show similar gains. According to Bitcoin charts, the trading prices is above $320 across the board, while Mt. Gox, which carries a premium due to liquidity troubles, is listing the currency at $353.

Even by the standards of Bitcoin, this is a wild ride. It invokes the specter of last April when a spectacular crash sent the currency from above $200 down to about $50:

While the current surge seems unsustainable, the next collapse may not be as dramatic because, even since April, Bitcoin has acquired an unprecedented degree of respectability and stability — that has allowed it to weather FBI raids, Silk Road’s collapse and more.

Meanwhile, investors and tech savants are coming to see that Bitcoin is not just a currency, but an enduring protocol. As AngelList CEO Naval Ravikant puts it: Silicon Valley knows a platform when it sees it, and is aflame with Bitcoin.