Bitcoin Price Recovers Past $17,000 as Bitcoin Cash Surges
Bitcoin price recovered past $17,000 on Wednesday morning, even as the bitcoin cash price continued to surge as a result of its listing on Coinbase.
As CCN.com reported, Coinbase and GDAX abruptly listed bitcoin cash on their trading platforms last night, further inciting volatility in an already rocky market. To make matters worse, the rollout was messy. Within minutes, the bitcoin cash price ballooned to $9,500 on GDAX, and the exchange halted trading just minutes after it opened. At the time of writing, GDAX’s BCH order books remained closed, although Coinbase appeared to be processing bitcoin cash orders normally.
Against this backdrop, the cryptocurrency market cap had a chaotic day, swinging tens of billions of dollars at various points during intraday trading. Nevertheless, it ended the day on the high note, and the combined value of all cryptocurrencies currently sits at $626 billion — a single-day increase of about three percent.
Bitcoin Price Recovers Past $17,000
The bitcoin and bitcoin cash prices often take inverse trajectories, and the ascent of bitcoin cash came — to some extent — at bitcoin’s expense. After beginning the day at $18,245, the bitcoin price dipped as low as $16,353 before reversing course on Wednesday morning. By the time of writing, the bitcoin price had recovered past $17,000 and was trading at a global average of $17,573, which represents a 24-hour decrease of four percent and leaves bitcoin with a market cap of $294.4 billion.
Ethereum Price Ends Day Trading Sideways
Like bitcoin, the ethereum price plotted a rocky trajectory during intraday trading and at one point fell as low as $758. However, the ethereum price managed to end the day just slightly below its previous-day level. At present, the ethereum price is valued at $828, which translates into an $80 billion market cap.
Bitcoin Cash Price Soars Nearly 50 Percent
But while bitcoin and ethereum struggled to tread water, the third-largest cryptocurrency raced to an all-time high. Spurred by bullishness related to its listing on Coinbase, the bitcoin cash price rose as high as $3,800 in the global market before settling down to a present value of $3,410. This represents a 24-hour increase of 48 percent and gives bitcoin cash a market cap of $57.5 billion.
IOTA, Bitcoin Gold Headline Mixed Altcoin Markets
The wider altcoin markets were net positive, but individual performances were quite mixed, with some coins making moderate pullbacks and others assembling strong advances.
Ripple and litecoin each posted moderate declines, perhaps as a result of bitcoin cash’s addition to Coinbase. Many ripple advocates believed XRP would be the next cryptocurrency added to Coinbase, while litecoin may have lost a bit of its luster now that it must compete with another payments-focused cryptocurrency.
The IOTA price, on the other hand, surged 36 percent on the news that Robert Bosch Venture Capital (RBVC) had made a strategic investment in IOTA tokens.
The cardano price declined seven percent — worst among top 10 coins — but dash, NEM, and bitcoin gold managed to end the day with strong runs. Of those, bitcoin gold posted far and away the best advance, rising 32 percent to $437.
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