Bitcoin passed $17,000 on Tuesday to touch its highest level this year. The biggest cryptocurrency climbed 3.6% to $17,325, its highest level since Jan. 2018.

Its all-time high is $19,666, scaled in Dec. 2017 on the back of a retail investor-fuelled buying frenzy.

“The virus crisis is propagating the reassessment of bitcoin,” said Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, an analyst at JPMorgan. “There is a reassessment about its value here as an alternative currency, as an alternative to gold.”

The cryptocurrency has more than doubled its value in 2020 itself.