-I think It is popular. many people accept and trade in Bitcoin because It is recognized and accepted as a currency by many.
-Bitcoin is decentralized and limited. This is a major factor for many Bitcoin users. Bitcoin is hard for governments to trace and tax
-Bitcoin acts like an equity investment. The market value of Bitcoins has had wild swings in value and even a market cap.
-Bitcoin is a social network. The Bitcoin "community" is active and acts like other online social networks.
-There are only 21 million bits so it has the same value as gold.
I think because bitcoin has properties and characters like gold. bitcoin and gold have a limited amount. to get it we have to do mining. then both are very liked by the community and can be accepted as a currency. the limited number but with the high demand that makes it has a high value.