Bitcoin’s most sustained period of price stability in its history is about to come to an abrupt end, cryptocurrency experts have warned.

Since early September, bitcoin has not experienced any major market movements, trading between $6,000 (£4,670) and $7,000.

This unusually narrow range comes after months of steady losses, falling from a high close to $20,000 in late 2017 – market analysts predict it could be the “calm before the storm”.

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 He later rescinded the claim Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's big split On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw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

Pointing to previous periods of stability, Albright Investment Group founder Victor Dergunov wrote in a blog post that he expects to see prices increase substantially over the coming months.

“This is not the first time bitcoin has seen calm waters. We’ve seen similar periods of modest volatility, and humble price swings,” he wrote.

“Primarily, similar low volatility phenomenon have occurred in the very late stages of bitcoin bear markets [whereby prices fall as investors sell]. Everyone seemingly loses interest, volume dries up, news flow quiets down, and then, when you least expect it, the next bitcoin bull market begins [whereby prices rise as investors buy].”

The price of bitcoin has flat-lined in recent months (CoinMarketCap)

His comments follow similar predictions by blockchain technology expert Ian McLeod, who told The Independent last week that the cryptocurrency market will “explode” in 2019.

According to Mr McLeod, however, the big price gains will come from one of bitcoin’s rivals, such as ethereum or stellar.

“We can expect bitcoin to lose 50 per cent of its cryptocurrency market share to ethereum, its nearest rival, within five years,” he said.

“Ethereum is already light years ahead of bitcoin in everything but price and this gap will become increasingly apparent as more and more investors jump into crypto.”

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Before 2017, bitcoin’s last major price spike came in 2013, when its value rose from below $100 to above $1,000 in the space of just a few months. There followed a brief price crash before a sustained period of steady losses and market stagnation that saw bitcoin trade between $200 and $600 for more than two years.

If bitcoin mirrors this trend, investors may have to wait until some time in 2020 for the next significant price falls or gains.