The bitcoin offshoot surged to a record, helped by strong demand from South Korea and increased profitability for digital currency « miners. »
The bitcoin offshoot surged Saturday to a record high in high trade volume, helped by strong demand from South Korea and digital currency « miners » who found the offshoot more profitable to mine.
Bitcoin cash, an alternative version of bitcoin launched by a minority of developers on Aug. 1, climbed 44 percent to $996.92, according to CoinMarketCap. That’s the highest bitcoin cash has ever traded in its less than three weeks of history, and a jump of almost 374 percent from its low of $210.38 on its first day of trading.
Bitcoin cash traded off that high at $944.45 in mid-morning trade, still less than a quarter of the original bitcoin’s price.
Bitcoin cash seven-day performance and trade volume
Source: CoinMarketCap
After stagnating interest in the first two weeks of its existence, the bitcoin offshoot began climbing late last week after digital currency « miners » on Wednesday mined an eight megabyte bitcoin cash block. That demonstrated bitcoin cash could fulfill its promise of faster transaction speeds, which is determined by block size. The original bitcoin has a one megabyte block size and is set for an upgrade to a two megabyte block this fall.
