Earlier today, on November 8, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe announced the end of SegWit2x on the SegWit2x Mailing List. Shortly thereafter, the bitcoin price surged to $7,800, achieving a new all-time high.
Many of the major supporters of SegWit2x including ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees, Bitmain founder Jihan Wu, Xapo CEO Wences Casares, Blockchain CEO Peter Smith, and SegWit2x lead developer Jeff Garzik signed the official announcement of Belshe, officially announcing their withdrawal of support from the SegWit2x hard fork.
The announcement read:
“Although we strongly believe in the need for a larger block size, there is something we believe is even more important; keeping the community together. Unfortunately, it is clear that we have not built sufficient consensus for a clean blocksize upgrade at this time. Continuing on the current path could divide the community and be a setback to Bitcoin’s growth. This was never the goal of SegWit2x.”
Belshe further stated:
“We want to thank everyone that contributed constructively to Segwit2x, whether you were in favor or against. Your efforts are what makes Bitcoin great. Bitcoin remains the greatest form of money mankind has ever seen, and we remain dedicated to protecting and fostering its growth worldwide.”
No Hard fork on November 16, Market Confident in Bitcoin
CCN previously reported that the decline in support for SegWit2x has been a major factor in driving the bitcoin price to new highs in the past week. While several analysts argued that it is the supporters of SegWit2x triggering the price to increase as funds from altcoins moved over to bitcoin, others firmly stated that such theory is far fetched and frankly, overreaching.
Over the past 24 hours, as the SegWit2x hard fork was terminated and support for the solution was abandoned by its lead developer and companies, the bitcoin price has increased by over 9 percent. Hence, it is evident that the community has been anticipating a chain split to not occur by mid-November and has been confident in the mid-term performance of bitcoin.
In the upcoming weeks, if the bitcoin price sustains its upward momentum created by the termination of SegWit2x, there exists a solid chance it could break the $10,000 interim target of analysts like Max Keiser, given the optimism towards bitcoin by the US market. CME Group, the world’s largest options exchange by trading volume, is planning to launch a bitcoin futures exchange by the end of 2017, which could also trigger the demand for bitcoin from the traditional financial industry.
No Price Drop in November
Prior to the withdrawal of SegWit2x, analysts predicted a major correction to occur after the SegWit2x hard fork, as funds in bitcoin move to SegWit2x and other altcoins. But, the possibility of a major correction has been eliminated with the cancellation of SegWit2x, creating a bullish short-term scenario for bitcoin.
In the upcoming weeks, the bitcoin price could highly likely move towards surpassing the $8,000 mark, given that a chain split has been avoided.
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