Bitcoin has added nearly one-fifth to its value over the past five days, with investors seemingly apathetic to the prospect of a mid-November hard fork.
Hard Fork Not Likely to Challenge Bitcoin
There has been a lot of talk about SegWit2x, or the upcoming fork in the Bitcoin network. However, unlike the split that gave us Bitcoin Cash (BCH), market participants are not sweating the latest SegWit protocol for one simple reason: they do not believe it will challenge the original bitcoin.
The BCH experience has made investors all the more weary of hard forks. That’s probably why Bitcoin Gold came into existence with hardly a sigh from the original blockchain network. Developers, investors and analysts seem pretty unanimous that neither of these protocols will surpass bitcoin in any meaningful way.
Bitcoin’s next fork is expected to occur on or around Nov. 16. Based on the prevailing sentiment among miners, investors probably won’t have to worry about which of the two coins will be called the true bitcoin. In other words, there will be no question which fork is the minority chain.
What investors can expect is an immediate spike in the newly formed asset, followed by a sharp drop and a prolonged period of instability. At least, that’s what the last two forks achieved.
Like other forks, SegWit2x is about the same thing that always divides the blockchain community: how to boost the network to enable more transactions. Bitcoin’s ability to accommodate more transactions is no trivial pursuit; it forms the basis of mainstream acceptance of the token as a legitimate form of payment. At current levels, bitcoin’s transaction speed just doesn’t cut it to be considered a viable payment method that can replace credit cards or debit transactions.
BTC/USD Price Levels
Bitcoin’s latest rally has defied all logic and goes beyond what the technical indicators have to say. BTC/USD reached a high of $6,905 on Thursday, which was enough for a new record high. At press time, prices are up more than $282, or 4.3%, at $6,850.
Doing the math, the current price level gives bitcoin a market cap of $115 billion.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is also pushing higher, having gained 22% overnight to reach $550. That’s the highest level since early September. With the gain, BCH is back to being no. 3 on the list of global market caps.
Altcoins Miss the Boat
Bitcoin’s massive uptrend has failed to resonate with the altcoin universe. Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Dash, Neo and NEM are down at least 3.5%, according to CoinMarketCap.
At present, cryptocurrencies not named bitcoin (BTC) account for just 39% of the total market cap.
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