Now Bitcoin Worth More Than Gold After Soaring to Record High Value

Following months of uncertainty and turmoil, Bitcoin proved that it could beat the odds and redeem itself.

A week after the controversial ‘hard fork‘ that saw a group of Bitcoin developers establishing the cryptocurrency Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin has proven once again why it has remained in business for almost a decade.

On Monday, the virtual currency was reported to have crossed the $3,000 USD mark value over the weekend and landed a record high of $3,400 USD per coin. The figure was said to be $2,000 USD more than the price of gold.

Bitcoin Worth More Than Gold

A sign that Bitcoin is maturing in the eyes of professional investors. Early Monday, the total value of all cryptocurrencies also set a new all-time high with over $117 billion USD.

Bitcoin After the Hard Fork

According to a report from CNBC, the price gain of the legacy Bitcoin was attributed by most enthusiasts to the relief rally after the relatively smooth split of the digital currency into Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

It should be remembered that on August 1st, a minority of developers pushed through with their proposed upgrade after a year of disagreement over the operation of legacy Bitcoin.

The proposed update wanted to increase the size of the original 1MB blocksize of Bitcoin to 8MB. However, a week before the hard fork, some key miners and developers of the virtual currency were reported to have already adopted a new technology called Segwit2x or Segregated Witness.

In Segwit2x, instead of increasing the blocksize to increase transaction speed, some Bitcoin transaction data will be moved outside of the block and to a parallel track, allowing more transactions to be processed.

Going back to the issue, the hard fork did affect Bitcoin for a few days. However, the cryptocurrency redeemed itself during the weekend.

In a statement sent to CNBC by Benjamin Roberts, co-founder, and CEO of Citizen Hex, an ethereum-focused startup backed by three Canadian venture funds, he said:

“I think a lot of new investors were waiting on the sidelines until after the hard fork. Now that it has happened with a favorable outcome (Bitcoin + Bitcoin Cash > Bitcoin), new money is entering into the space.”

A blockchain adviser, Michael Pearson commented that Bitcoin’s recovery only shows that the cryptocurrency is more resilient to forks than what people believed.

Some also felt that Bitcoin Cash contributed a lot to the legacy Bitcoin’s value. Matthew Newton, a market analyst at the eToro trading platform, said:

“We’ve seen a lot of people selling their Bitcoin Cash in order to buy more Bitcoin. On top of this, some investors sat on the sidelines last week, waiting to see what happened, these investors are now moving back into Bitcoin.”

While Bitcoin is basking in its trade success, Bitcoin Cash is currently suffering from a nosedive. After attaining a peak price of over $700 USD on its starting week, the new cryptocurrency is now down to around $300 USD after recovering from a weekend dip to near $200 USD.

However, despite the struggle, there seems to be some hope left for Bitcoin Cash after Coinbase, one of the world’s top exchange and wallet services, gave its assurance that it would support the new virtual currency after refusing to commit initially.

Do you think that Bitcoin Cash is just a product of stubborn Bitcoin miners and developers’ irresponsible decision making? How would you disagree with that? Let us know in the comment section below!