The buzz surrounding digital currencies resembles The internet excitment in The late 90's when people recognized technology companies could change The world. Many internet companies launched and their valuations took OFF in short order. Many failed, bit a few succeeded spectaculary and challenged the conventional ways of doing business.
Surging prices also drove up cryptocurrency market capitalization.
At The begining of 2017 The total value of all bitcoin in circulation was almost $15.5 billion but by The end of The year it increased almost 14 fold to over $216 billion. Other crytos such as ETC, Ripple or litecoin experienced similar gains.
A congressman from colorado recently introduced "The cryptocurrency Tax Fairness Act of 2017". The bill would create a de minimis reporting exemption for virtual currency purchases under $600. The bill has yet to become law, but as virtual currencies' popularity and tech abilities improve, more bills on this topic will likely be introduced.
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https://www.congress.gov/115/crpt/hrpt596/CRPT-115hrpt596.pdf