The price of bitcoin topped $400 on the CoinDesk USD Bitcoin Price Index today, its highest value over the last four weeks.

The press time value of $401.83 represented the highest bitcoin price observed since 5th November, when the price hit a high of $447.25 across major USD exchanges including Bitstamp, Bitfinex, Coinbase, itBit and OKCoin.

Data shows the price began its most rapid runup at 22:30 UTC on 5th December, when the price rose abruptly from $377.49 to $385.93 over a 10-minute period. So far, the price rally has continued into 6th December, with bitcoin’s value up 3% over the day’s trading.

Similar increases were observed on the CoinDesk CNY Bitcoin Price Index, which rose from ¥2,486.86 to ¥2,532.10 over the same period.

The latest price escalation comes amid an increase in transactions observed on the bitcoin network, with this figure hitting a 52-week peak on 30th November, and follows what has been a strong end of the year for the digital currency, which traded for under $200 as recently as January.

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