Litecoin prices have surged over the past 24 hours, reaching a new all-time high following a month of generally sideways trading.

Peaking last night at 21:24 UTC, the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization reached a record high of just over $64 – a 36 percent increase over the week. At press time, litecoin’s price had dropped to $62, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Vigorous trading in South Korea seems to be at least in part responsible for the rise, a trend also seen for bitcoin cash, monero and Ripple’s XRP in recent days.

CoinMarketCap indicates that Korean exchange Bithumb was responsible for as much as 25 percent of the volume in the last 24 hours, though Chinese exchanges OKCoin and Huobi saw 18 and 15 percent respectively.

Imminent regulatory changes regarding cryptocurrencies in South Korea have been cited as a reason for the sudden growth in interest in the nascent crypto asset class.

Looking more broadly, the combined market cap for all cryptocurrencies has again reached a new high, brushing the $159 billion mark at 00:07 UTC today, according to CoinMarketCap.

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Ripple.

Litecoins image via Shutterstock