UPDATED 22:32 EST / NOVEMBER 12 2017

EMERGING TECH

Bitcoin Cash price surges as speculators look to invest in alternative cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin spinoff Bitcoin Cash saw a massive surge in investment over the weekend as its price hit a high as $2,461.91 at one point, briefly surpassing Ethereum as the world’s second-most popular cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Bitcoin Cash or BCH for short, for those not familiar with the cryptocurrency, is a spinoff coin created following a hard “fork,” or change in the underlying software of bitcoin, back in August. Every investor in bitcoin at the time was entitled to the equivalent amount in BCH.

Bitcoin Cash is actually the same as bitcoin but without the change in its underlying code made in August, with some calling it the “original bitcoin,” as confusing as that may seem. To provide an analogy, it’s as if the U.S. Federal Reserve one day decided to replace paper money with polymer notes, but a competing group comes along and vows to support the original paper notes.

The flood of money into Bitcoin Cash followed a failure to obtain a consensus agreement for the original bitcoin to fork — that is, to adopt new code — that came about last week. As SiliconANGLE reported at the time, many investors were holding onto or buying bitcoin on the expectation that the fork would create yet another new bitcoin spinoff dubbed Bitcoin Gold. But because the fork didn’t go ahead, those investors looked to alternative cryptocurrencies to invest in — Bitcoin Cash among them.

Although Bitcoin Cash has seen a rapid rise in its fortunes, bitcoin itself has suffered deeply as investors sought greener pastures. After hitting a record high of $7,721.98 last Wednesday, its price dropped as low as $5,617.69 in trading early Sunday until it recovered to just above $6,000 by late Sunday evening.

Bitcoin is notorious for its rises and falls over its history. But whether the current downturn is the start of a longer downward price trend in a market that some have already compared to the infamous Tulip Mania of the 17th century is not clear at this stage.

After its unprecedented price surge, the Bitcoin Cash market saw profit takers emerge. The price dropped to $1,331.93 as of 10:3o p.m. EST, down over $1,000 from its peak but still overall up from last Thursday, when it was trading at $662.71.

Image: Bitcoin Cash

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