Bitcoin has shot up by $1,000 in less than 24 hours in a price surge reminiscent of the huge gains it experienced in late 2017, when the cryptocurrency's value catapulted to nearly $20,000.

The latest jump in price follows seven weeks of steady gains, which have seen bitcoin's price rise from below $4,000 to today's price of $8,100.

Early speculation among bitcoin experts is that the latest price surge may have been triggered by the Consensus 2019 bitcoin conference kicking off in New York this week.

Cryptocurrency market analysts have also pointed to a recent spate of good news for bitcoin, such as crypto-related announcements from large institutional investors like Fidelity Investments.

Simon Peters, an analyst at the online trading platform eToro, suggests the combination of these factors could lead to even more gains in the next few days.

"If we see institutions begin to pump serious money into the market, we could be at the start of a very long bull run for cryptoassets," he told The Independent.

"As crypto's true believers gather in New York for Consensus this week, they are counting ever-more household-name companies among their number... This is good news at the start of a big week in crypto, we expect more price moves over the coming days."

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

British-based bitcoin exchange CoinCorner told The Independent that it has witnessed an increase in interest in bitcoin from traders and investors over the last few months.

"Since the start of 2019 we've seen increases in our volumes and sign ups at CoinCorner, likely caused by the bitcoin price rising at a steadier pace," said CoinCorner CEO Danny Scott.