Investing.com – Bitcoin rose sharply on Thursday continuing its recovery from a two-week low, while bitcoin added to recent losses.
On the U.S.-based Bitfinex exchange, bitcoin rose to $7,737.9, up $464.2, or 6.38% as the popular digital currency’s market cap surged to $128.99 billion.
Traders continued to pile into bitcoin as the digital currency attempted to test its recent all-time highs of $7895. Sentiment in bitcoin turned bullish after Square (NYSE:SQ) said Wednesday it was testing support for bitcoin to allow customers to buy and sell the digital currency through its payment app Cash.
The recovery in bitcoin comes on the back off slump to a two-low earlier in the week as after investor an upgrade – segwit2x – to its network was cancelled, stoking uncertainty over the future of the popular digital currency as the Segwit2x upgrade was aimed at speeding up transactions on the bitcoin network.
The cancellation forced investors to abandon their bullish bets on bitcoin as they appeared to back Bitcoin cash, betting that the bitcoin offshoot was more likely to be adopted as mainstream form of payment as it boasts both cheaper transactions costs and faster transaction processing times compared to that of bitcoin.
Bitcoin cash, however, has since retreated from its all-high of $2,790 to trade at $1,011.40, down 14.57% while bitcoin gold rose 7.36% to $175.64.
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, fell 0.90% to $327.92.