Bitcoin price (BTC) is rising back towards $9,000

Bitcoin is heading back up towards $9,000 after the cryptocurrency weathered a rough start to the year.

The digital currency’s price swung back and forth over the weekend, briefly rising above $9,000 on Saturday before dipping back below $8,000 yesterday morning.

At the time of writing, bitcoin’s price was up 8.22 per cent at $8,734.52, according to Coindesk’s aggregate index.

The price of the notoriously volatile asset was sent tumbling from its all-time high of nearly $20,000 at the end of 2017, and in January it sustained its biggest monthly loss since 2015.

Regulators have ramped up scrutiny of bitcoin this year. Last week, Lloyds and Virgin Money became the first UK banks to ban bitcoin purchases with their credit cards.

World leaders fear bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are being used in crimes like money laundering, but now it has also emerged that hackers are targeting government websites to mine, or create, bitcoin.

Government websites in the UK and US, including those belonging to the data regulator and the Student Loans Company, have been taken offline after a security researcher discovered that malware was being used to illegally mine cryptocurrencies.

Read more: Government websites have secretly been mining bitcoin