EMERGING TECH
EMERGING TECH
EMERGING TECH
Bitcoin hits new record high as Bitcoin Cash alternative flounders
The price of a single bitcoin broke through $3,000 over the weekend, surging as initial interest in an alternative version of bitcoin launched last week declined.
The price of bitcoin peaked at $3,323.93 in trading Saturday before dropping to $3,248.35 Sunday evening, according to figures from Coindesk. Along with the record price, bitcoin’s market capitalization also surged past $50 billion for the first time, sitting at $52.9 billion as of 9:30 p.m. EDT.
Bitcoin has surged since the beginning of the year, breaking one record after another. The price started out at $997.69 on Jan. 1 before constantly making headlines as it hit new record highs. In February the price surged to $1,206.02, breaking its previous longstanding record dating back to 2013. It kept on rising from there and by May the price hit $1,426.54. That clearly wasn’t the end of the surge, which was attributed at the time in part to increased institutional interest in cryptocurrencies.
The new price increase and the break through the psychological $3,000 barrier appears to have been driven in part by capital becoming available following the release of Bitcoin Cash, a bitcoin fork that gave many existing bitcoin holders free tradable Bitcoin Cash coins.
After its initial launch the price of bitcoin remained steady as many took a wait-and-see approach to Bitcoin Cash. But a day later the price of BCH surged to a high of $1,470 at one stage before settling back to be trading at $848.69 Aug. 2.
As it turns out, what goes up must come down, at least for Bitcoin Cash, whose priced crashed to as low as $205, though it stands now at $251. While there is no solid proof, it would appear many of those with Bitcoin Cash holdings have sold them and then used those funds to invest back into bitcoin – perhaps somewhat ironic but a vote of confidence in bitcoin going forward versus the alternatives.
Bitcoin wasn’t the only one to benefit from Bitcoin Cash holders exiting the market. Ethereum, the second most popular cryptocurrency after bitcoin, also rose in value as the price jumped to a new record high of $271.05 as of Sunday evening.
Image: PublicDomainPictures
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