Bitcoin is primed for another major take off, by the look of things. The Bitcoin price has shown bullish signals over the past two days and the trend is starting to materialize as we speak. With a near 10% gain in the past 24 hours, we may very well see a new all-time high for Bitcoin in the coming hours. That would certainly put any speculation of “jumping ship” to Bitcoin Cash to rest.
Sudden Bitcoin Price Jump Hints at new All-time High
It is quite remarkable to see how the Bitcoin price has evolved over the past few years. For a cryptocurrency that is only a few years old, the growth of Bitcoin cannot be denied by any means. Despite all of the opposition from the media, financial institutions, and self-proclaimed experts, Bitcoin has not perished after all. Instead, we have seen a tremendous Bitcoin price growth, going from being worth next to nothing to surging toward US$3,000 for the second time in recent weeks.
More specifically, the Bitcoin price has increased by 9.68% over the past few hours. That move is somewhat surprising, as it appeared the market would turn bearish for the coming week. The main reason for bearish momentum comes in the form of the Bitcoin Cash hard fork and the possible network disruption it would cause. However, some companies feel the disruptive effect of this hard fork will be minimal.
As a result, we now see a nice Bitcoin price increase, which comes out of the blue. It is true the recent lock-in of Segregated Witness will be quite beneficial to Bitcoin users all over the world. Not only will it introduce a transaction malleability fix, but also improve the number of transactions to be included in every network block. Some community members want bigger blocks anyway and will obtain that goal either through SegWit2x or Bitcoin Cash.
It is also possible some people are actively buying Bitcoin right now to obtain their free Bitcoin Cash tokens on August 1st. Anyone holding Bitcoin in a secure and personal wallet will effectively be entitled to Bitcoin Cash on that day. Obtaining this altcoin will be a bit of a challenge, as none of the major exchanges have any plans of supporting the chain right now. Exporting your Bitcoin wallet private key and importing it in a Bitcoin Cash-capable client seems to be the best course of action for the time being.
With the “threat’ of Bitcoin Cash reduced to a nuisance, the Bitcoin ecosystem can thrive. Bitcoin will always remain the largest blockchain, by the look of things, which means there is no reason for any price decline whatsoever. In fact, the current Bitcoin price gains are more than justified, and the path to US$3,000 per BTC is wide open. With a growing trading volume across all exchanges, that target is well within reach over the next few hours. Mainly Bitfinex and Bithumb are competing for trading volume right now, which is nice to see.
As one would expect, the Bitcoin price gains have adverse effects on other cryptocurrencies. Ethereum is down by nearly 5%, whereas Litecoin lost 3% of its value. Dash is down by almost 7% and Ethereum Classic lost another 4% as well. It will take some time for altcoins to recover when Bitcoin becomes truly bullish, that much is certain. The upcoming weekend could prove to be rather interesting for cryptocurrency traders and speculators after all.
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