Bitcoin Rebounds From Correction Territory

Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, the two popular cryptocurrencies, saw their prices rebound in trading Tuesday (Aug. 22), although Ethereum, a competing cryptocurrency, remained under pressure.

According to a news report in MarketWatch, bitcoin’s worth was up 2 percent on the day, reaching $4,139.87. The bitcoin blockchain had hit a low of $3,687 earlier in trading but was able to rebound. At one point, the report noted bitcoin’s worth was in correction territory, which is when a 10 percent or more decline from the recent peak happens.

Currently, the cryptocurrency is 8 percent lower than its peak price. Even with bitcoin prices falling, the value of one bitcoin is 400 percent higher than at the beginning of 2017. The currency has a market capitalization of $68.7 billion, noted the report.

Ethereum didn’t do as well, with the digital currency down 0.5 percent to $322.33 on the day. Its peak was in the middle of June, when the value hit $380 per coin, reported MarketWatch.

“Naturally, some of the prices and exuberance seen in the price are causing traders to take profits,” Charles Hayter, chief executive and founder of CryptoCompare, said in the report. Bitcoin Cash, the offshoot of bitcoin, also recovered, up 5.2 percent on the day to $662.25. Bitcoin Cash reached a peak of $920 over the weekend and with its current price commands a market capitalization of more than $11 billion. It is the third most valued digital currency, noted MarketWatch.

Toward the end of July, investors and entrepreneurs out of Asia dropped the news that they’re planning to unleash Bitcoin Cash. The goal behind this new blockchain currency is to process more transactions every ten minutes. Currently, the tenants of bitcoin only allow for five transactions per second. Developers have shared that increasing the amount of data that can be processed may lead to problems on both the individual and corporate level.