Talking Points
- Bitcoin.com CTO swaps Bitcoin for Bitcoin Cash
- Altcoins push further ahead, total market capitalization exceeds $640 billion.
The DailyFX Bitcoin Glossary is designed to provide traders with a reference for important terms and concepts essential for understanding the emerging cryptocurrency universe.
Bitcoin swapping sees BTC fall and BCH surge
Bitcoin.com co-founder and CTO Emil Oldenburg has sold all of his Bitcoin and switched into Bitcoin Cash, citing performance issues, according to a recent article on Swedish tech site Breakit. Oldenburg said that Bitcoin’s current performance was unacceptable with slow confirmation times and high performance fees blighting the token. Overnight trading saw BTC fall by around 3.5% to $18,290 while BCH jumped 20% to hit a new peak of $2,400. Thomson Reuters also added BCH to their Eikon platform – the third cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) - putting it in front of 300,000 investment professionals.
Bitcoin Cash Price Chart (BCH) Four Hour Timeframe (December 3 – December 19, 2017)
Introduction to Bitcoin Trading Guide
Altcoins Continue to Benefit From Switching
The rest of the cryptocurrency market continued to push ahead with a wide range of tokens hitting fresh all-time highs. Ethereum (ETH) hit a new high around $850 before drifting back, along with Litecoin (LTC) and Ripple (XRP). The altcoin market is benefiting from switching out of Bitcoin as traders look at the price of a coin as well as the underlying company profile. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization hit $640 billion in early European trade, driven by altcoin outperformance.
We will be looking at a range of cryptocurrencies at our Weekly Bitcoin Webinar on Wednesday at 12:00pm.
Cryptocurrency Market Prices and Capitalizations – December 19, 2017
--- Written by Nick Cawley, Analyst.
To contact Nick, email him at nicholas.cawley@ig.com
Follow Nick on Twitter @nickcawley1
