The price of bitcoin has plummeted dramatically, losing 20 per cent of its value in less than an hour.

The cryptocurrency crash takes bitcoin below $6,000 – its lowest value since 2019.

Several other major cryptocurrencies also experienced significant losses, with bitcoin cash losing around a third of its value.

Some cryptocurrency analysts have blamed the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, which has had a heavy impact on the global economy.

"Bitcoin has fallen as cryptocurrencies become caught up in the turmoil we're seeing in traditional markets," Simon Peters, a market analyst at online trading platform eToro, told The Independent.

"Previously seen as a possible safe haven in difficult times, investors now seem to be selling out to take back liquidity in case the coronavirus spreads even further. In a time of uncertainty, many investors might feel it is better to own cash or gold rather than more speculative cryptocurrencies like bitcoin."

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

The deadly virus, which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation on Wednesday, has seen stocks endure near-continuous losses in recent weeks.

One economic forecaster, who predicted the 2008 global financial crash, warned that another crash is on the way. Jesse Colombo told The Independent described coronavirus as “the one-two punch” that will send the economy “hurtling towards recession”.

Bitcoin's falling price is expected to continue, having crossed a key threshold of support that investors were looking to as a sign of positive market movement.

The latest drop means more than $50 billion has now been wiped from bitcoin’s overall value since the start of the month.