Hello, Quartz Index readers!
Bitcoin cash, the offshoot of cryptocurrency bitcoin that was created on Tues (Aug. 1), is now worth $4.6 billion. That pegs the value of all the bitcoin cash in circulation at about 10% of bitcoin’s total market value of $47.1 billion. This makes bitcoin cash the fourth most valuable cryptocurrency, behind bitcoin, ethereum, and ripple. It trades under the BCH symbol on most exchanges, while bitcoin retains BTC.
Bitcoin cash’s vault up the valuation charts can be explained by its provenance as a fork of bitcoin—think of it like the splitting of an amoeba in two. The market value of all the coins in circulation is calculated by multiplying a coin’s price by the total supply of coins in circulation.
When bitcoin cash splintered off from bitcoin, it also inherited the supply of coins in circulation. In other words, there is roughly the same amount of bitcoin cash in circulation as bitcoin, and both cryptocurrencies each currently have 16.5 million units in circulation.
Bitcoin cash is now, for all intents and purposes, an asset independent of bitcoin. It must develop its own ecosystem of developers, exchanges, and startups in order to flourish. —Joon Ian Wong
[qz-index-article id=1044685][/qz-index-article]
[qz-index-article id=1042900][/qz-index-article]
[qz-index-sponsor][/qz-index-sponsor]
[qz-index-article id=1046172][/qz-index-article]
[qz-index-article id=1043944][/qz-index-article]
[qz-index-article id=1042926][/qz-index-article]
[qz-index-article id=1040568][/qz-index-article]
[qz-index-article id=1042875][/qz-index-article]
[qz-index-article id=1041517][/qz-index-article]
[qz-index-article id=1041526][/qz-index-article]
[qz-index-article id=1041533][/qz-index-article]
[qz-index-article id=1041541][/qz-index-article]