LONDON (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin rocketed above $7,000 for the first time ever on Thursday, after a more than sevenfold increase in its value since the start of the year.
Bitcoin has seen eye-watering gains in recent months and has more than doubled in value in the past seven weeks alone <BTC=BTSP>. It hit as high as $7,066.44 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange on Thursday.
The latest rally was driven by news earlier this week that the world's largest derivatives exchange operator CME Group <CME.O> is to launch bitcoin futures.
The price move takes bitcoin's aggregate value, or "market cap" -- its price multiplied by the number of bitcoins released into circulation -- to more than $117 billion, according to industry website Coinmarketcap.
The aggregate value of all cryptocurrencies is now at a record high of over $190 billion, the website said.
(Reporting by Jemima Kelly, Editing by Abhinav Ramnarayan)
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