Bitcoin Cash Drops Below $800 Amid Market Sell-Off
The token aims to replace Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Cash is having a tough day. The fourth-largest cryptocurrency, with a market cap of $12.8 billion, slumped 15 percent over the past 24 hours on Thursday to reach a price of $752 per token. The project “forked” from the main Bitcoin project back in August 2017, but after a promising start, the token has slid along with the rest of the market.
The token has continued its slide versus the U.S. dollar to reach its lowest point since it soared in value at the start of November. This is not unique to Bitcoin Cash — Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin and others have gradually slid over the past three months. Bitcoin has dropped from its mid-December high of nearly $20,000 to reach under $8,000 this month, while Ripple’s $148.7 billion market cap slipped rapidly at the start of January to dip to $40.5 billion in just two weeks.
Bitcoin Cash over the past three months.
The market as a whole is going through a decline as the hype around cryptocurrency cools down and investors start looking to long-term applications. Edward Cooper, head of mobile at digital banking firm Revolut, told Inverse Wednesday that the movements are “a natural cooling off period following an unprecedented bull run towards the latter part of 2017.”
It’s unclear whether Bitcoin Cash, or any of the other tokens, will reverse their fortunes in the near future. J.P. Bunttinx, a writer for The Merkle, noted on Wednesday that “sustaining any positive momentum is all but impossible for cryptocurrencies right now,” and the industry “remains incredibly unpredictable.”
Bitcoin Cash will need to both buck the trend in the market and make serious gains if it wants to replace Bitcoin as the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Karthik Iyer, India’s ambassador to the P2P Foundation, told Inverse in December that Bitcoin Cash needs to beat Bitcoin before improvements like the Lightning Network boost speeds on the original token.
The pressure is on the reverse the tide.
