The bitcoin price surged to $12,000 this afternoon. (CoinDesk)

Bitcoin has risen above $12,000, exactly a week after it temporarily spiked past the key milestone.

• CoinDesk data shows bitcoin shot up at about 13:30 UTC, initially to $12,100, before jumping up again to just over $12,400 by 16:00 UTC, a 4.74% rise on the day.
• While bitcoin is now at a new 2020 high, it still has some way to go before it beats last year's high of $13,800 and is still further off from the all-time high of just under $20,000 set in December 2017.
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• The bitcoin price surged to $12,000 this afternoon.

  Source: CoinDesk

• Following three months of ultra-low volatility, bitcoin shot up at from roughly $9,100 to over $11,000 in late July, before briefly spiking past $12,000 on Aug. 10.
• Bitcoin had been continuously flirting with that milestone over the past seven days, coming as close as $11,990 late on Aug. 14.