The price of bitcoin reached $300 today on the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) for the first time in over three months, continuing a steady climb since mid-September.

The last time the bitcoin price surpassed $300 was on 13th July, when the price reached a high of $310.09, but closed on $290.88.

Today, the price exceeded this marker at around 02:30 UTC before continuing to rise to $301.96, but falling to $299.71 at the time of press.

While the price has increased 30.3% since the beginning of September, it is still considerably lower than it was throughout the same period of 2014.

The majority of trading in the past 24 hours occurred on Chinese bitcoin exchanges, with 45.18% taking place on OkCoin, 33.43% occurring on Huobi and 5.29% on BTCC, according to data from Bitcoinity. Volumes across the past 30 days tell a similar story.

The cause of the price increase isn’t clear, although some speculate it is down to the recent EU value added tax (VAT) ruling, which recognised bitcoin as a currency and specified it is not subject to VAT. Others indicate Chinese traders fear further currency controls in their country, so are investing funds in bitcoin.

Featured image via Shutterstock.