The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that out-of-fashion bitcoin is back in fashion. Guest columnist Preet Banerjee writes that few wanted to talk about the cryptocurrency for much of 2023. Even laser eyes are back; during the pandemic many Twitter users who were all aboard the crypto hype train modified their avatars to make their eyes glow red. After the punishing drop in bitcoin's price in 2022 (down 64.2 per cent), 2023 was a barnstormer with a gain of 155.7 per cent, and on Wednesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the listing of 11 spot bitcoin exchange-trade funds for trading on public markets in the U.S. Previously, alternative forms of bitcoin ETFs available in the U.S. held futures contracts on bitcoin, not actual bitcoin. These spot bitcoin ETFs will hold actual bitcoin themselves. If you are still in the "What is bitcoin?" camp, worry not. Many people are. It takes hours of reading to understand how bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology are supposed to work. If you are not interested in reading up on it, you might want to cross it off your list as a direct investment option as most experts agree you should not invest in something you do not understand.