The price of bitcoin jumped 12% today, setting a weekly high of $368.51 at 12:30 (UTC).

According to the CoinDesk USD Bitcoin Price Index (BPI), the digital currency opened the day at $328.98 before increasing $40.

The price has shed about $20 from its intra-day peak, trading around $346 at press time.

Bitcoin’s price made the headlines earlier this month as it surged past $450 for the first time this year, nearing the $500 mark.

The price reached $492.40 on 4th November at 00:00 (UTC) and subsequently dropped by a staggering 30.6% on 11th November, when it peaked at $341.32.

Elsewhere, a look at CoinDesk’s Bitcoin CNY Price Index told a similar story.

The digital currency opened the today’s trading at RMB2,091.28 ($327.09), before rising to RMB2,324.53 ($363.57) around the same time as the US dollar index.

Reasoning behind the rise

Although it is always difficult to determine the factors behind the cryptocurrency’s price rise – or decline – various industry incumbents have, in the past, spoken about the influence of positive news in the space.

Colin Kwan, CEO of Magnr, shared his thoughts on the bitcoin’s spike today, telling CoinDesk:

“Financial institutions around the world are jumping on the blockchain bandwagon, looking to take advantage of new technology and reduce costs and improve efficiency … I believe that … financial institutions are starting to realise that they need to use bitcoin to make this work. This reinforces the value of the bitcoin blockchain and therefore bitcoin itself.”

Tuur Demeester, editor-in-chief at bitcoin analysis firm Adamant Research, said the price movement could be spurred on by market psychology. Traders could be driving up the price as it fell towards $300 because of a new market belief in the wake of this month’s rally that $300 is now a key price-floor for the digital currency.

“It’s what happens when traders act on the belief that $300 is now an important support level,” he tweeted.

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