Bitcoin hit a two-month high over the weekend, as the world's leading cryptocurrency continues to recover from its worst ever start to a year.

The price of bitcoin reached above $7,700 on Monday, according to CoinMarketCap, up by almost $2,000 since the end of June. Its current value is still a long way off its 2017 peak, when it reached close to $20,000 amid a flurry of interest in the virtual currency.

The latest gains also fall short of some analysts' predictions, who forecast that bitcoin would rise above $10,000 in May and continue to climb.

They have also not been reflected across all cryptocurrency markets, with ethereum seeing its value drop by around 3 per cent since this time last week.

Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Satoshi Nakamoto creates the first bitcoin block in 2009 On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled 'Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System' Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin is used as a currency for the first time On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins – the equivalent of $90 million at today's prices Lazlo Hanyecz Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Silk Road opens for business Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures The first bitcoin ATM appears On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures The fall of MtGox The world's biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Would the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's big split On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash REUTERS Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's price sky rockets Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year Reuters

It is the first time since April that bitcoin has achieved consistent price gains, helped by two major price surges last week that saw its value go up by over $1,000 in just a few days.

Analysts often attribute positive news in the crypotcurrency space to positive price movement, and the latest market shift is no exception. Rumours that the investment giant BlackRock is interested in cryptocurrency preceded one price spike, marking the latest firm from the traditional financial sector to potentially make a move into the space.

The price of bitcoin has risen by more than 15 per cent in the last week (CoinMarketCap)

A major announcement by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could also see the price of bitcoin significantly shift either up or down.

Some within the cryptocurrency space are hopeful the SEC will introduce a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which was requested by the blockchain platform SolidX through the Chicago Board of Exchange.

If introduced, bitcoin's price could be propelled towards its 2017 highs thanks to increased trust through clearer regulation. An ETF for gold that was introduced 15 years ago saw the commodity shoot up in price by around 300 per cent.

The SEC may reject the ETF, however, having previously dismissed a request last year citing bitcoin's price volatility.

Whether or not the request is rejected is unlikely to stem a recent trend that has seen governments and financial authorities seek to better understand the digital currency space.

"Almost every moth there's new evidence to suggest that authorities are finally getting to grips with the crypto markets – and recent weeks have really seen things accelerate," Matthew Newton from the eToro trading platform told The Independent.

"Stateside, the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, which has historically been friendlier to crypto than other US banking authorities, added bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum and litecoin to its FRED index. And in Europe, the publication of a new paper from the European Parliament edged closer to giving cryptocurrencies the stamp of approval."

The report also warned that any move by a major bank or financial institution could have a negative impact on bitcoin, stating: "The arrival of permissioned cryptocurrencies promoted by banks, even by central banks, will reshape the current competition level in the cryptocurrency market, broadening the number of competitors."