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.
