A bitcoin spin-off briefly replaced rival digital coin ether as the second-largest cryptocurrency
Bitcoin cash rallied after plans for a ‘hard fork’ in the original bitcoin blockchain were called off
By Ryan Browne
A cryptocurrency that split away from bitcoin was temporarily the second-largest virtual currency by market value on Sunday.
The market capitalisation of bitcoin cash surged to more than US$41 billion on Sunday at 2:29 a.m. ET, according to data by industry website Coinmarketcap. It dipped to US$22 billion at 10:30 p.m. ET.
Bitcoin cash usurped rival digital coin ether — the digital token of the ethereum blockchain — becoming the second-largest digital currency by market cap for a number of hours.
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, congratulated backers of the bitcoin offshoot on Twitter.
In response to a Twitter user that questioned the dominance of bitcoin, Buterin said: “A key reason why I am now so confident in crypto is precisely the fact that there are so many different teams trying different approaches.”