Yahoo Finance Bitcoin Surges Above $6,000 to Record Highs
Investing.com – Bitcoin prices hit record highs on Friday, rising above $6,000 for the first time in its nine history amid heavy buying pressure.
On the U.S.-based Bitfinex exchange, bitcoin rose to $5,946.5, up $252.5, or 4.43%.
Bitcoin had earlier hit an all-time high of $6,054.9 after investors piled into the cryptocurrency, as trading volumes in U.S. dollars for bitcoin surged to $2.11 billion, dwarfing that of rival cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and bitcoin cash.
The sharp uptick in trading volumes comes a week ahead of the hard fork in Bitcoin, expected October 25. The hard fork will create an offshoot cryptocurrency called Bitcoin Gold, which would be freely distributed to current holders of bitcoin.
The expected hard fork in Bitcoin comes amid concerns over mining monopolies present in the Bitcoin network. Proponents of Bitcoin Gold believe, however, that the ASIC resistant cryptocurrency will decentralize the Bitcoin network, lowering the possibility of mining monopolies.
In other cryptocurrency news, Bitcoin Cash fell 0.77% to $327. Bitcoin Cash’s market cap of $5.48 billion pales in comparison to bitcoin’s $99.09 billion.
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, gained 0.34% to $308.
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Bitcoin Surges Above $6,000 to Record Highs
