The price of bitcoins topped $1,000 Wednesday on Mt. Gox, the second largest exchange by volume, marking the first time its price has hit four digits.
Bitcoin first hit $100 in April and quickly doubled that same month. The price has increased fivefold in the seven months since, but it has also experienced significant fluctuations amid uncertainty about the viability of the digital currency.
Across all bitcoin exchanges, however, its average price is still slightly below the $1,000 mark, as you can see in the chart below from blockchain.info.
The surge in the price of bitcoin follows a U.S. government hearing into the virtual currency, some notable stories of average people getting rich on the currency and efforts of a few big name investors and startup founders to bring bitcoin to the mainstream.
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