Bitcoin cash, the new cryptocurrency, is crashing. By Frank Chaparro, Business InsiderAugust 4, 2017
Bitcoin cash has dropped 33%, to $290 a coin, over the past day, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com. That's down from its all-time high of $727 set on Wednesday, a day after its debut.
Meanwhile, bitcoin is up 1.92%, to $2,852.
On Tuesday, bitcoin split in two after a years-long battle in the cryptocurrency community over the rules that should guide bitcoin's network.
That split resulted in the creation of bitcoin cash, which was spun out of the same blockchain network as bitcoin — almost like a copy of it — but built to process more transactions more quickly.
Many folks in the community think bitcoin cash's price has been inflated by issues with the technology underpinning the coin.
When the cryptocurrency split, investors who stored their bitcoin in digital wallets that supported bitcoin cash received one bitcoin cash coin for every bitcoin. But many of them can't access their bitcoin cash coins, so they can't transfer them to exchanges where they can actively be bought and sold.
According to Aaron Lasher, the CMO of Breadwallet, a bitcoin wallet, the price of bitcoin cash could drop even further once those coins enter the exchanges, based on simple economics — when more people look to sell a good than to buy it, the price falls.
Samson Mow, the chief strategy officer at Blockstream, told Business Insider the bitcoin cash house of cards could fall apart and that the cryptocurrency was unlikely to "survive at prices above $100 in the long term."
Sebastian Quinn-Watson, a venture partner at Blockchain Global, a bitcoin exchange operator based in Australia, said, "We have some of our key traders telling us that they will be getting out of their BCC positions by 8 August."
August 8 is when SegWit, a software update for the original bitcoin blockchain, is set to go into effect.
"We see 8 August as the day the bell tolls for bitcoin cash," Quinn-Watson said. "If the prices of BCC remain strong post the 8th then it is likely to be a currency for a long period.
"Alternatively, we could see a consolidation in bitcoin and see it run well past its peak," he concluded.
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