The price of bitcoin has often been compared to history's biggest bubbles – Dutch Tulip mania in the 17th century, the Mississippi Bubble in the 18th century and the UK Canal and Railway mania in the 19th century – but perhaps the most popular comparison is the dot-com bubble of 2000.

In the space of five years, it seemed any company with a '.com' after its name provoked a feeding frenzy from investors, which led to an artificial inflation in their value. When the bubble inevitably burst, the implosion saw more than $1.7 trillion wiped from their market value, just months after the peak.

Since December 2017, the market cap of bitcoin has followed a similar trajectory, albeit on a much smaller scale. Two recent flash crashes in the space of a week have taken bitcoin's total losses above $250 billion, representing a 77 per cent drop in less than 12 months.

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

But despite the similar pattern, market analysts believe it is erroneous to draw a direct comparison between the two.

"I wouldn't compare the current state of the crypto market to the dot-com bubble," Angel Versetti, CEO of the blockchain technology firm Ambrosus, told The Independent. "While there are similarities in terms of overvalued new technology startups with unproven or unsustainable business models that were incessant in both dot-com and crypto, the sheer scale of crypto and dot-com businesses are not comparable. I do not believe we are, or were, anywhere close to a bubble with cryptocurrency.

"We are experiencing a strong correction, but the bubble has not formed yet. All the bankers and financiers jumping onto the crypto train signal that the bubble is yet to come. I think when all cryptocurrencies and tokens will be worth 15-20 trillion USD, that will be a bubble."

Bitcoin has lost more than $250 billion from its market cap since December 2017 (CoinMarketCap)

Bubbles can only be identified in retrospect, so it may be too soon to call the latest price collapse a bubble bursting. Looking at bitcoin's volatile history, the falls from the heights of late 2017 represent only the fourth biggest price adjustment in bitcoin's 10-year history.

Cryptocurrency experts also note that one of the biggest casualties of the dot-com bubble was Amazon, which saw its shares fall from $300 in 1998 to $6 in 2000.

Amazon's share price is now more than $1,500, having become only the second company in history to reach a market value of more than $1 trillion. This is thanks to the fact that it was fundamentally a great business idea and was eventually able to fulfil its potential.

"Of course commentators have drawn comparisons between the current bear market and the dot-com bubble of the 1990s," said Matthew Newton, an analyst at the online investment platform eToro.

"While this is inevitable, I'd venture to suggest it's not particularly useful – it's a bit like proclaiming the end of the FTSE 100 at the end of 2008. One of the benefits of a bear market is it weeds out people who are looking to make a quick buck, and aren't interested in the underlying technology. Those who understand the technology and see its benefits tend to stick around, adding value to the market."

In order for the benefits of the underlying technology to be realised and the price of bitcoin to stabilise and eventually rise again, many within the cryptocurrency industry have called for greater regulatory oversight in order to boost investor confidence.

"Having oversight of the cryptocurrency 'Wild West' will legitimise, and subsequently stablise the industry, which will allow it to reach the next step of maturity," said Herbert Sim, chief commercial officer of the cryptocurrency exchange Cryptology.

"Institutions and governments alike are beginning to accept that cryptocurrencies are likely to become an integral part of the financial system. Regardless of price moves, it's clear that the cryptocurrency community is here to stay, with institutions offering new modes of trading such as options, futures and trading on margins.