Bitcoin-rivals bitcoin cash and bitcoin SV, both of which are offshoots of the original bitcoin, have suddenly soared—with bitcoin SV now up three-fold where it started the year.
[Updated: 12:25am EST 01/15/2020] Bitcoin SV has climbed over $300 per token, up from under $100 at the start of the year. Bitcoin SV has now become the world's fourth most valuable cryptocurrency, behind bitcoin and ethereum and displacing bitcoin cash. Many are sceptical of bitcoin SV's sudden rally, however, with some claiming it's a so-called pump and dump exit scam and pointing to dubious trading data.
"Ignore the price moves of bitcoin SV," Nicholas Merten, the founder of cryptocurrency analysis YouTube channel DataDash, said via Twitter. "Only $35.6 million of volume is from exchanges open to U.S. traders. The other 99.4% of daily volume is made up of mainly no-name exchanges and known wash trading exchanges that still deceive this space. They can basically dictate a false price."
The price of bitcoin forks bitcoin SV and bitcoin cash failed to perform as well as bitcoin last ... [+]
The bitcoin price has, meanwhile, climbed to highs of $8,901 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange before falling slightly back, up from around $8,100 at the start of the week. Bitcoin cash is up some 15% in the last 24-hour trading period, while other major cryptocurrencies, including ethereum, Ripple's XRP, litecoin and EOS added between 6% and 12%.
Bitcoin SV, which broke away from bitcoin cash in 2018 and is controlled by the controversial Australian computer scientist Craig Wright, has rocketed higher following reports Wright has acquired documents that might help prove he had a hand in bitcoin's creation a little over 10 years ago.
Bitcoin SV has been climbing for the last month after struggling for most of 2019 and over the last few weeks has leaped sharply higher—adding a staggering 200% in just the last week.
Wright, who has repeatedly claimed to be the mysterious creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, is locked in a long-running U.S. legal dispute with Ira Kleiman who is suing for half of a 1.1 million bitcoin hoard, worth almost $9 billion.
Wright scored a minor victory in court last week when a judge ruled facts previously established in the Florida trial were now in dispute and granted Wright three weeks to unlock the so-called Tulip Trust that contains many of the first bitcoin ever created.
Wright claims the trust is currently inaccessible because several keys are held by an unnamed intermediary but now has until February 3 to find them.
However, U.S. judge Beth Bloom has expressed doubts that the documents will eventually appear.
"Given the defendant’s many inconsistencies and misstatements, the court questions whether it is remotely plausible that the mysterious ‘bonded courier’ is going to arrive, yet alone that he will arrive in January 2020 as the defendant now contends," judge Bloom wrote in a court order dated January 10.
Bitcoin SV's supporters hope that this latest development in the complex story will mean Wright is accepted as bitcoin's creator and, with control of more than 1 million bitcoin, is able to steer the market towards his bitcoin SV.
The bitcoin SV price has added a whopping 110% over the last month, climbing above the psychological ... [+]
Meanwhile, the bitcoin and cryptocurrency market remains upbeat heading into 2020—despite some dire warnings.
Yesterday, long-awaited exchange-traded bitcoin options launched on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, allowing traders to make more sophisticated bets on the future price of bitcoin.
Elsewhere, bitcoin's hash rate last week hit a fresh all-time high while some have speculated digital assets have begun to act as so-called safe havens.
