The price of digital currency hit a new 18 months’ record this Sunday. Thanks to the growing volume of trade, it climbed up to $525 in the afternoon.

According to CoinFox bitcoin price index, the cryptocurrency reached the $500 mark on Saturday. During the night from Saturday to Sunday, digital currency went up to $523.

By 14:00 GMT on 29 May the price of bitcoin was swinging around $525. The bitcoin was making new gains at Bitfinex bitcoin exchange, where at some point its price soared to $536.

The plausible reason for the rush the rising demand on Chinese markets. The recent jump of bitcoin coincides with the sudden increase in the BTC trading volume on the Chinese-oriented bitcoin exchanges OkCoin, and Huobi.

The continuing decline of the Chinese stock market contributed to the growth of bitcoin trading volume. According to Bloomberg, China’s stocks capped their longest stretch of weekly losses since July 2012. In this situation, many speculative traders opted for the cryptocurrency.

Chinese markets were behind the previous hike in bitcoin exchange rate. As CoinFox reported earlier, on 27 of May the bitcoin price jumped 5% in 7 hours and continued to grow. The rally started around 23:00 GMT on 26 May. According to bitcoinity.org, OKCoin and Huobi accounted for 94% of the trading volume. At the peak time at OKCoin 8.7k BTC were sold in one minute.

The upward trend can also be associated with the negative dynamics of US dollar. Dollar price went downwards after the publication of April data for durable goods orders in the USA. According to the US Department of Commerce, the index has risen 3.4% instead of predicted 0.5% growth.