Yahoo Finance Bitcoin Pares Gains After Surge to Record Highs on Split Rumours
Investing.com – Bitcoin recorded fresh all-time highs on Friday, rising above $8,000 for the first time in its nine-year history amid reports that a group of bitcoin miners plan to move ahead with an upgrade of the bitcoin network which may lead to a split, or “hard fork”.
On the U.S.-based Bitfinex exchange, bitcoin fell to $7,846.5, down $18.5, or 0.24% after rising to an all-time high of $8,040. Bitcoin’s market cap surged to $131 billion.
The latest surge in bitcoin comes on the back of reports that a small group of Bitcoin miners –users who help maintain the system by validating transactions stored in “blocks” on the network – planed to initiate the SegWit2x upgrade of the underlying software supporting bitcoin despite the developers behind the upgrade shelving plans last week.
SegWit2x aims to speed up transactions on the bitcoin network by increasing the size of “blocks” - files that store information on the network - from one megabyte to two megabytes (hence, the 2x). The update is expected to activate on Friday.
Bitcoin demand usually surges ahead of an upgrade of the bitcoin network as it tends to lead to a split or so-called hard fork in Bitcoin, creating a new currency which is usually freely distribute to existing holders of bitcoin.
Other cryptocurrencies mirrored bitcoin’s move higher as Bitcoin cash rose to $1,104.40, up 22.11% while bitcoin gold rose 4.90% to $164.
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, rose 0.40% to $332.19.
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