It’s 2016 and bitcoin price gains its first significant surge of the year to gain over $20 in a 10-hour period to scale beyond $450.

The Bitstamp Price Index started the day at $430.80 and surged through the next 12 hours to reach a high of $454 at the time of publishing.

The figure represents a new year-high and also represents the highest price since Christmas 2015. Christmas day saw a high of $455.51 before a significant drop in bitcoin price saw the cryptocurrency trading at $417 the following day.

The first spike of the today started at 02:10 AM UCT when bitcoin price stood at $430.59 before a 30-minute window wherein the cryptocurrency scaled up to $438.33. The next surge came near 05:49 AM UCT as the price touched $440. The next two hours witnessed the Bitcoin price scale up to ring the figure of $450.16 at 07:50 UCT.

A likely factor for the swell in Bitcoin price today is events in China. Chinese stock markets didn’t last an hour of trading today (Thursday) with circuit breakers in force for both Shanghai and Shenzen stock exchanges. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 7.3 percent today.

The forced shutdown of stock markets is the second instance the panic button was hit this week after Chinese stock markets plunged 7% in the opening session of 2016, earlier this week on Monday.

The Chinese Yuan and the offshore Yuan are both depreciating in value in a stuttering manufacturing economy which is seeing rife inflation. The Chinese government imposed measures of the shares sale ban – a measure that sees the ban of share sales by shareholders with more than 5% of the stock – has seen a predictable rise in volatile trading.

With the world’s second-largest economy fluctuating wildly and its national currency devalued further, the impact is likely to be profound in markets around the world.

Meanwhile, bitcoin adoption is increasing in China, a country that is already responsible for 80% of the global trading volume of bitcoin.

For a live Bitcoin Price chart, click here.

All time references are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Featured image from Shutterstock.