Bitcoin hit a new record high Thursday with rising investor interest causing a rally for the price of the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin climbed 11 percent to an all-time high of $5,386.23, according to data from industry website Coindesk. This surpassed the previous high of $5,013.91 hit on September 2.

With Thursday's gains, bitcoin is now up around 454 percent year-to-date.

Several digital currency enthusiasts pointed to increased investor interest in bitcoin ahead of a scheduled split in November. When bitcoin split into bitcoin and bitcoin cash in August, bitcoin investors at the time received an equal amount of bitcoin cash. However, not all digital currency exchanges immediately supported the offshoot currency.

Other major digital currencies mostly rose as well. Ethereum traded mildly higher around $305. Bitcoin cash, the offshoot of the original bitcoin, traded slightly higher around $316.

Bitcoin year-to-date performance

Source: CoinDesk

Investors also appear to have shrugged off much of the negative news from regulators around bitcoin.

Last month, Chinese regulators with some of the largest in the country shutting down operations. The government also banned initial coin offerings (ICOs), a way for cryptocurrency start-ups to raise money through issuing tokens.

But reports have emerged in the last few days that trading in the world's second-largest economy could resume. A report by Cryptocoinnews.com, citing Chinese state-owned news company Xinhua, said that bitcoin trading will likely resume with more regulation. This could include new licensing and anti-money laundering regulations to be implemented by exchanges.

"Speculators are bullish on bitcoin's value with the anticipation of China's reintegration with global crypto markets," Aurelien Menant, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Gatecoin, told CNBC by email on Thursday.