Bitcoin Price Crosses $600, Rising 34% in One Month

The price of bitcoin has increased above $600, rising over 7% in the past 24 hours and 34% in a month.

The last time the price was over $600 was 21st March, during a gradual decline that eventually saw the value reach a low of $344 on 11th April.

For the majority of this month, the price has ranged between around $418 and $453, beginning to rise above this level the week after the Bitcoin2014 conference in Amsterdam.

This week's price increase follows the news that US satellite service provider DISH Network is to start accepting bitcoin payments later this year.

DISH Network Corporation, which employs more than 30,000 people, has more than 14 million customers and reported revenue of $13.9bn in 2013.

This makes it the largest company, to date, to accept bitcoin. Previously, online retailer Overstock was the largest, with revenue of $1.3bn in 2013.

Bernie Han, executive vice president and chief operating officer at DISH, said: “Bitcoin is becoming a preferred way for some people to transact and we want to accommodate those individuals.”

DISH has chosen Coinbase as the company that will process its bitcoin payments. Coinbase claims to currently have around 32,000 businesses on its books, with competitor BitPay citing a similar figure.