Investing.com - Bitcoin Cash prices rose sharply on Sunday, jumping to a record high above the $900-level, amid optimism that faster transactions times will speed up the spread of the cryptocurrency.
According to market participants, over half of Bitcoin Cash’s transaction volume was made on trading exchanges in South Korea, such as Bithumb and Coinone.
Bitcoin Cash was last at $774.00 by 9:35AM ET (1335GMT), up about 106.4%, or $398.96.
It touched $935.50 earlier, the highest the Bitcoin offshoot has ever traded in its less than three weeks of history and an increase of almost 400% from its low of $210 on its first day of trading.
The surge means that the total market cap of Bitcoin Cash has now reached around $13 billion, making it the third-largest digital currency after Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The rapid price rise has made it more profitable for miners to mine Bitcoin Cash as opposed to the original Bitcoin.
Prices of the original Bitcoin slumped around 6%, or $250, to $4,087.70, continuing its retreat from last week's all-time peak of $4,489.10.
It fell to a low of $3,951.30, amid growing investor concerns that the digital currency could face a second split in November.
Bitcoin’s blockchain split into two earlier this month, after members of the bitcoin community rejected the first part of the SegWit2x upgrade, creating a competing currency called ‘Bitcoin Cash’.
The most important difference between the two coins is that Bitcoin Cash allows for faster transaction times by using custom block sizing.
Bitcoin Cash has a block size with an 8-megabyte transaction limit. Bitcoin transactions on the other hand are limited to 1-megabyte every 10 minutes.
Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading, Ethereum was down almost 3.5% to $292.53. It has the second-largest market capitalization among cryptocurrencies at nearly $28 billion.
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