Bitcoin fans are fond of claiming that the price of the cryptocurrency is heading to the moon, but it may now be halfway to Mars.

The price of bitcoin broke yet another new record in trading Thursday thanks to rumors that Amazon.com Inc. might be about to enter the market.

The price of bitcoin hit a high of $7,351.46, the first time bitcoin has broken through $7,000, following record highs of $6435.53 Tuesday, $6,306.58  Oct. 29 and $6,148.82 Oct. 21. It’s now double the price at which it was trading in mid-September.

The latest driver of bitcoin mania was a report from Domain Name Wire that said Amazon had purchased three cryptocurrency-related domain names: amazoncryptocurrencies.com, amazoncryptocurrency.com and amazonethereum.com. That suggested to some that Amazon was considering doing something in the space, ranging from offering exchange services to embracing Ethereum as a payment option to considering offering its own cryptocurrency.

The Amazon news followed the announcement earlier this week by CME Group Inc., the operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, that they would start offering bitcoin futures contract trading by the end of the year. That was also a big boost in confidence for the bitcoin market, which SiliconANGLE noted at the time could be the start of a new bull run on bitcoin. Rumors also continue to circulate that China may be considering lifting its ban on bitcoin trading, a move that would increase liquidity in international bitcoin markets.

Unlike when bitcoin’s last record high, profit takers swooped in this time, so the price of bitcoin dropping back below the $7,000 mark later in the day to as low as $6873.09. Still, close to midnight EDT, it was sitting at $7.195.95.

Image: NASA/Wikimedia Commons