The cryptocurrency markets have recovered following a Bitcoin boom in anticipation of the Bitcoin Gold hard fork.
Capitalizing on similar energy to that which occurred prior to the Bitcoin Cash split, Bitcoin Gold is a chain split that was set to fork at block 491407 of the Bitcoin blockchain. The official Twitter account announced the split on Monday:
Snapshot time! pic.twitter.com/3nt2a1PDQK
— Bitcoin Gold (@bitcoingold) October 24, 2017
Similar to the Bitcoin Cash split, a prime attractive feature of Bitcoin Gold was it’s distribution of tokens to current holders of Bitcoin, capitalizing on the desire for “free money.” The actual distribution is reportedly set for the 1st of November, and the present market value for the tokens is around $400.
The cryptocurrency markets experience a dramatic seesaw between Bitcoin and the rest
In anticipation of the distribution of the aforementioned free tokens, Bitcoin went on a sharp increase. From Wednesday to Saturday, the price rose from about $5,150 to a new all-time high of $6,187, with a jump from $5,640 to $5,995 occurring over the course of just two hours on Friday. Over the last week, the combined value of all other cryptocurrencies fell from $78 billion to $68 billion on Tuesday as money flowed into Bitcoin to capitalize on the fork.
This week, the markets experienced a sharp recovery. The markets excluding Bitcoin now claim a combined value of $75 billion, almost back to their place a week ago, with $6 of the $7 billion added occurring over just a couple hours on Tuesday.
A wild ride for Dash since the London conference
The last couple months have been an interesting ride for Dash in the markets. Following a sharp low of $220 during the height of the China regulatory confusion, Dash’s price quickly recovered past $300, then to a recent high of $360 in anticipation of the first conference in London revealing exciting news. Following the absence of hard announcements to be hyped, the price corrected down to the $300 range again over the next couple weeks. After experiencing a recent low of $263 during the Bitcoin Gold activity, the price has since recovered to $296.
It still irks me a bit that a movement in bitcoin affects all other coins prices and relative value. It would be great to someday be able to be even more independent of bitcoin even as one can exchange into and out of bitcoin to dash. I understand why it happens, and it seems nearly unavoidable, but it still irks me a bit.