Bitcoin Cash is the currency that split from Bitcoin during the August 1 Hardfork.
When it was first created, it caused a lot of uncertainty in the crypto world - everybody was wondering what would happen to the Bitcoin price if Bitcoin Cash was established.
As August 1 came, many exchange platforms offered a 1:1 free Bitcoin Cash distribution for everyone who held Bitcoin in their account during that day.
During that time, the price spiked to its former all-time high of $727.
But it's no surprise that only shortly after, the price fell to about $200 as everybody was cashing out their free BCH coins.
The Bitcoin Cash remained at around $200-300 for 2 weeks - until beginning a meteoric rise on August 17.
Bitcoin Cash even reached an astonishing all-time high of $1091, breaking through the $1000 mark, before dropping back down to just below $800.
Reaching the $1000 mark was an incredible accomplishment - the whole crypto world was in shock and it comes to no surprise that many traders sold at that point and the price dropped right back down.
So what is the reason that Bitcoin Cash has been rising at such an incredible speed for the last few days?!
Like always, no one can really pinpoint the exact cause of this price movement - but there are a few scenarios that might have influenced the price.
#1 - Mining BCH is now more profitable than mining BTC
The most important factor to keep in mind when talking about mining is the difficulty. The difficulty gets adjusted frequently and measures how difficult it is to mine a block.
As the difficulty for Bitcoin Cash has dropped significantly but the price has more than doubled, it has actually become more profitable to mine BCH right now instead of BTC.
Currently, miners can make up to 50% more when mining Bitcoin Cash instead of Bitcoin.
But since Bitcoin offers more liquidity, it might still be more profitable to mine BTC. It depends on what the miner is looking for.
#2 - Exchange volume
For the first time ever, Bitcoin Cash has surpassed the exchange volume of Bitcoins.
On friday, its trading volume was on over $3 billion, while Bitcoin was on $2.9 Billion!
And this comes after being $744 one day prior, and even as low as $106 on wednesday.
This really shows the extremely quick rise of Bitcoin Cash within the last few days!
#3 Engagement from South Korea
The South Koreans have been crazy about Crypto this year - especially about Ethereum and Bitcoin, but apparently also about Bitcoin Cash.
The BTC/Korean Won pair dominated the trading market, and just under 60% of global bitcoin cash trade volume have been concluded in Korean Won from the 3 major south korean exchanges Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit.
#4 Faster Processing Speed
Bitcoin Cash miners managed to demonstrate that the network can support an 8MB block - compared to the 1MB block size of the original Bitcoin.
According to a recent CNBC Article this technological advancement is also one of the reasons why the BCH price has risen.
The faster processing speed makes it more attractive for Investors, as well as prove that there are substantial benefits to the currency.
What do you think - are there any other factors that have influenced the BCH price surge?
And how do you think the Bitcoin Cash price will develop in the future - is it possible that it will ever overtake Bitcoin?!
© Sirwinchester