A recent sharp increase in the values of bitcoins, a decentralized online virtual currency, is merely another economic bubble, experts have predicted.

Amid the frenetic speculation of the newly developed internet currency, the value of bitcoins increased 50 times in 2013. Some bankers even quit their jobs to concentrate on online investment, Hong Kong based Wen Hui Pao reported.

The newspaper attributed the increased investment to tightened surveillance by governments on financial institutes and decreased local incomes, following the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis.

The newspaper also quoted an employee from Morgan Stanley as saying that bitcoin is expected to be the earliest currency to be considered risk-free capital.

However, some economics professors have warned that the virtual currency merely symbolizes another financial bubble.

The majority of the investors were individuals, who purchased bitcoins for trading, savings, business start-ups or currency exchange. According to Wen Hui Pao, the value of the currency is still fluctuating.

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