The Bitcoin Cash price has surged by more than 50 percent over the past 24 hours, triggered by the South Korean market’s abrupt increase in demand and the integration of the cryptocurrency by Coinbase.
Coinbase Briefly Halts Bitcoin Cash Trading Due to Volatility
Earlier today, on December 20, the global cryptocurrency exchange market’s largest brokerage and wallet platform Coinbase, the first confirmed multi-billion dollar startup in the cryptocurrency industry, has integrated Bitcoin Cash trading.
Both Coinbase and its flagship cryptocurrency exchange GDAX have integrated Bitcoin Cash, providing more liquidity to the cryptocurrency that has been heavily concentrated in the South Korean cryptocurrency market in terms of daily trading volume and user base.
Adam White, the general manager at GDAX, wrote:
“We wanted to provide our customers with an update on Bitcoin Cash (BCH) trading on GDAX. At 4:00pm PST on December 19, 2017, we launched three BCH order books on GDAX. All BCH order books opened in post-only mode, allowing customers to place open orders and establish liquidity.”
However, at 5:22pm PST, less than an hour and a half after the integration of Bitcoin Cash trading, GDAX temporarily halted Bitcoin Cash trading due to significant volatility and unexpectedly large price movements. White noted that at the time, the GDAX team cancelled resting orders, cleared all Bitcoin Cash order books, and stabilized the trading platform to ensure a fair, transparent, and well-structured market.
At the time of reporting, Bitcoin Cash order books remain closed and White announced that Bitcoin Cash trading will resume on December 20 at 9:00 am PST.
“BCH order books will reopen on December 20th at 9:00am PST. All BCH order books will open in post-only mode for a minimum of one hour to establish liquidity. We will continue to closely monitor market activity.”
Bitcoin Platforms Move to Support Bitcoin Cash
Within December, Coinbase and Blockchain, two of the largest bitcoin wallet platforms in the global market which maintain around 50 million bitcoin and cryptocurrency wallets, integrated full support for Bitcoin Cash.
On Coinbase and GDAX, investors can store, send, receive, and trade Bitcoin Cash seamlessly, using the same infrastructure. On the Blockchain web wallet, users can safely store, send, and receive Bitcoin Cash on the same platform as bitcoin and Ethereum.
Integration of Bitcoin Cash by leading bitcoin infrastructure providers and platforms significantly increase the usability, fungibility, liquidity, and adoption rate of Bitcoin Cash, which analysts believe are crucial for the long-term growth of Bitcoin Cash.
The impact on the adoption of Bitcoin Cash by leading bitcoin businesses has been clearly evident short-term price trend of Bitcoin Cash.
The price of Bitcoin Cash has continued to increase since December 18, led by the South Korean and US cryptocurrency exchange markets. Currently, South Korea’s Bithumb and Hong Kong-based Bitfinex account for around 25 percent of global Bitcoin Cash trades.
Still, some analysts including Trezor lead developer and Satoshi Labs CEO Slush were highly critical about the decision of Coinbase to integrate Bitcoin Cash before other solutions such as SegWit. “Conbase was never a bitcoin company. They’ll sell you whatever will make them a profit,” Slush criticized Coinbase.