The past 24 hours have been incredibly interesting for the cryptocurrency ecosystem as a whole. Things did not entirely play out as most people had assumed, although some trends were somewhat predictable. The Bitcoin price held firm, whereas Bitcoin Cash experienced an initial pump-and-dump phase. All other currencies have reported small to medium gains, with a few exceptions.
Bitcoin Cash Price Drops by 30%, Bitcoin Remains Stable
When BCH tokens were made available to all eligible users, there was some concern regarding where its value would come from. According to Metcalfe’s law, Bitcoin Cash would only have value if it could be subtracted from the original Bitcoin’s market capitalization. Interestingly enough, it turns out that law can be thrown out of the window altogether when it comes to cryptocurrency. The Bitcoin price hardly budged at all and even noted a 1.32% gain despite the creation of Bitcoin Cash tokens.
Right now, one Bitcoin is still valued at US$2,757 on Coinmarketcap, and its market cap sits well above the US$45B mark for the time being. Bitcoin Cash, on the other hand, successfully reached a US$7B market cap without taking away value from Bitcoin or most of the top 10 altcoins. This is quite a significant development, as it appears the Bitcoin Cash team has successfully created money out of thin air. Under normal circumstances, that privilege only belongs to banks and financial institutions.
Taken together, Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash — or BCash, as some would prefer — make up over half of the total cryptocurrency market cap. Adding US$45B to US$7B gives us US$52B, which is more than half the total cryptocurrency market cap of US$102B. However, these currencies shouldn’t necessarily be added up in that regard, as most Bitcoin supporters feel BCH should ditch the “Bitcoin” part of its name altogether. They feel it is too misleading under the current moniker, which is somewhat understandable.
That being said, the Bitcoin Cash price did take a massive beating, as was to be expected. Last night, the BCH token was valued at US$756, which was a heavily inflated price, to say the least. Right now, that same token is worth US$438.67, which is still relatively high especially considering that most exchanges are trading well below that price right now. Bitfinex enabled BCH trading yesterday as well, but its lack of volume caused a price listing that was well below the market average.
Things have calmed down a bit on Bittrex as far as the Bitcoin Cash price is concerned. At one point, BCH was traded at a value of 0.48 Bitcoin. Right now, that market is slowly coming back down to earth, and BCH is valued at 0.225 BTC. That exchange depicts a higher Bitcoin Cash price compared to Kraken, where it is trading at 0.17BTC. Gauging the actual Bitcoin Cash price is very difficult at present, as there are large discrepancies between the various trading platforms. Moreover, most platforms still don’t allow BCH deposits at this time.
None of the other top 10 currencies have suffered significant losses at the hands of Bitcoin Cash so far. Everything has remained virtually the same, despite an 8.28% gain for NEM, and IOTA shooting up by 15.35%. Market stability is more than welcome at this point, as the previous weeks have been like a rollercoaster for all enthusiasts, to say the least. For now, anyway, things are looking quite good and relatively stable. However, experts will acknowledge that this may be the calm before the next storm.
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