A recent run-up in the price of bitcoin has been attributed to many factors: aggressive monetary easing by central banks, plans by Facebook to develop its own digital tokens, and market manipulation via Tether, another crypto asset. But another force may be giving bitcoin a lift: demand from Chinese investors.

The volume of bitcoin traded by mainland Chinese has been strengthening in recent months and has spiked about 50 per cent over the past 10 days, according to Babel Finance, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency financial services provider.

Analysts note that the latest surge in interest comes after the People’s Bank of China last week allowed the renminbi to weaken through the level of seven to the US dollar for the first time since the global financial crisis, increasing the appeal of alternative assets such as bitcoin.