Bitcoin blasts past $7,000 to reach another record high in 2017

Bitcoin's incredible march continues in 2017 after the cryptocurrency broke $7,000 per coin for the first time. The surge even saw it go on to reach a high of $7,200 on some exchanges.

The price reached a high of $7,140 on popular exchange Coinbase, that was up nine percent over the last 24 hours, but it since dropped to $7,075.

That last month has been an even crazier rollercoaster -- bitcoin surpassed $5,000 on October 12 and it has defied naysayers and continued to increase steadily in recent weeks.

It's fair to say that even the most optimistic bitcoin fans will have seen the currency rise beyond their expectations this year. Bitcoin hit the $1,000 mark on January 1 which led to speculation that it might top a then record $1,216.7 (set in 2013) over the next 12 months. But what happened after defied most predictions.

  • February 24 -- broke record

  • May 20 -- $2,000

  • August 4 -- $3,000

  • August 12 -- $4,000

  • October 12 -- $5,000

  • October 20 -- $6,000

Here's the price over the past year:

Bubble or genuine investment opportunity? We shall see over the rest of 2017.