Bitcoin price (BTC) reaches new all-time high

The bitcoin price broke out above $3,000 and reached a new all-time high after a strong rally over the weekend.

According to Coindesk, the digital currency reached $3,327.93 on Saturday. The price has since retreated to lower levels, but it is still well ahead of $3,200.

According to BlockTower Capital’s CIO Ari Paul, the latest gains are due to a relief rally following a bitcoin split that had little impact on the original cryptocurrency.

"With SegWit activation and the hard fork in the rear view mirror, bitcoin buyers see a smooth road ahead for the next two months," Paul wrote in an email to CNBC.

After an initial spike, the newly-created cryptocurrency bitcoin cash saw a sharp decline, which continued over the weekend, as many holders sought to trade their newly-minted coins for bitcoin.

The hard fork that led to the creation of bitcoin cash was meant to provide an alternative solution to bitcoin’s scaling problems by significantly increasing the bitcoin block size to 8MB, from 1MB. However the vast majority of bitcoin miners appear to be in favour of a different proposal called SegWit2x. The limited support for bitcoin cash has prompted some industry experts to question the coin’s long-term potential.

It was reported over the weekend that ViaBTC, the Chinese exchange that’s been the main proponent for bitcoin cash, reduced its mining activity for the new coin to one tenth of what it had dedicated in the first few days following the split.

In today’s trading the bitcoin price stood at $2,270.51, as of 10:22 BST. According to data from Coinbase-operated exchange, the cryptocurrency has gained 2.7 percent over the past 24 hours.

At the same time bitcoin cash was trading at $271.38, according to Coinmarketcap. The altcoin had fallen to around $203, before bouncing back in today’s trading.