Bitcoin is skyrocketing

Bitcoin is on a wild streak, surging markedly over the weekend.

Right now, the digital currency is sitting at $691 (£487.36) - and earlier this morning, it nearly broke the $700 (£493.70) mark, reaching highs of more than $697 (£491.59). (All figures come via bitcoin news site CoinDesk's price analysis tool.)

In the space of a month, bitcoin's value has jumped by more than 30% - from around $450 (£317.38) in mid-May to the sub-$700 mark it is hovering around today.

This is the highest bitcoin's price has been in around two years - it last broke the $700 mark back in February 2014, when it was trending downwards following all-time highs of more than $1,100.

Bitcoin is infamously volatile. This time last year, it was just a third of its current value, around $230. But it has slowly regained value since, gathering pace over the last few weeks.

Here's the price of bitcoin over the last month:

CoinDesk

And here is the price of bitcoin since its inception:

The price surge comes ahead of a "halvening" later this month. This is a reduction in the amount of bitcoins produced by mining - the process whereby computers dedicate processing power towards creating new bitcoin. When it hits, the amount of bitcoin being introduced in a set time period will halve. As you'd expect when supply is about to be constrained, the price is spiking.