The price of bitcoin has broken above $4,000 for the first time since early January, as cryptocurrency markets continue their recent surge.

The latest gains come amid rumours that Samsung is planning a cryptocurrency wallet in its forthcoming Galaxy S10 range of smartphones, set to be unveiled on 20 February.

In January, a leaked photo of the iPhone rival suggested the handset will come with an in-built cryptocurrency wallet that support both bitcoin and ethereum.

Several other smartphone makers have included in-built cryptocurrency wallets in their phones, such as the HTC Exodus and the Sirin Finney.

If the South Korean electronics giant features a wallet, it could signal a major shift towards such technology being standard on smartphones, helping cryptocurrencies achieve mainstream adoption.

Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Satoshi Nakamoto creates the first bitcoin block in 2009 On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled 'Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System' Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin is used as a currency for the first time On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins – the equivalent of $90 million at today's prices Lazlo Hanyecz Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Silk Road opens for business Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures The first bitcoin ATM appears On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures The fall of MtGox The world's biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Would the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's big split On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash REUTERS Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's price sky rockets Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year Reuters

Market experts say the latest gains are the result of increased positivity surrounding cryptocurrencies in recent days.

“These gains are clearly creating a wave of optimistic sentiment throughout the crypto community, with market volume up by $8 billion in the last 24 hours," Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at the online trading platform eToro, told The Independent.

"Market volume is now above $36 billion and we haven’t seen these levels since April 2018. But, until Bitcoin breaks above the much-needed psychological level of $5,000, the bear market is still very much in play.”