The unmitigated ascent for bitcoin comes as virtual currencies broadly have been gaining more prominence, putting them on a tear since last year, with cryptocurrency bulls pointing out stratospheric climb for bitcoin, compared with other traditional investments. One “regret” chart sent around on Monday by Jeroen Blokland, portfolio manager on the Robeco Global Allocation team, shows how a $1,000 investment in bitcoin in July 2010 would be worth more than $35 million. Comparatively, the equivalent investment in the S&P 500 would be around $2,500 (excluding dividends): https://twitter.com/jsblokland/status/866548678944862210/photo/1!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); While the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.25>#/span### has eased about 0.1% so far in May, essentially going nowhere, one bitcoin is about 61% higher for the month, climbing from around $1,344 at the start of the month to Monday’s fresh record. Those gains have in part been driven by upbeat regulatory moves, and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to rethink its rejection of the proposed Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust exchange-traded fund. As well, given the political tension in the U.S., some investors have sought out alternative investments, and bitcoin was tracking gains for gold GCM7, +0.43>#/span###until the virtual currency started sprinting ahead of the more traditional haven commodity this month: MarketWatch Gold vs. bitcoinvia