Bitcoin extends record climb, as digital currencies on the rise – MarketWatch

Bitcoin on Monday extended its ascent into rare air, with the digital currency adding to a recent record run-up about a week since the currency split into two distinct cyber units: bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

A single bitcoin BTCUSD, +2.39% was up 3.5% at $3,369.82, after enjoying a weekend ascent that has taken the cryptocurrency to its highest level since being created back in 2009. The total market value of bitcoin was nearly $55 billion, its highest on record, according to Coinmarketcap.com.

Some market participants theorized that this current rally in bitcoin is due to deceptive trading tactics employed by at least one deep-pocketed investor intended to create the illusion that a potential buyer is willing to, for example, buy bitcoin at a lofty price, which drives its value higher and potentially allows the bidder to then cancel the trade and sell at an inflated level, according to digital-money news site The Cointelegraph.

Bitcoin Cash, meanwhile, was up 52% on the session, but down 57% since its Aug. 2 peak when it hit $727.

Read: Bitcoin rallies to record, market cap hits $50 billion for first time

Prices of the original bitcoin have surged in the past week, after bitcoin launched last Tuesday a new version of its currency with a different configuration, known as Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash is an attempt to solve processing issues by allowing blocks to be processed in 8-megabyte units, rather than the 1-megabyte block the older version of bitcoin uses.

Prices appear to be mostly rising across much of the digital-currency network, with Ethereums ether token ticking 0.4% higher. An ether token was at $266.61 in recent trade, with a total value of $25 billion for the currency network.

Total market value across the top cryptocurrencies put them at $116.9 billion, with Bitcoin Cash coming in as the fourth-largest cybercurrency at $5.2 billion, ahead of Litecoin tokens at $2.4 billion.

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Bitcoin extends record climb, as digital currencies on the rise - MarketWatch