Bitcoin cash is crashing

crash

Bitcoin cash is crashing on Monday, trading down nearly 20% at $579 a coin after soaring to a record high of $942 during an impressive weekend rally. In the process, bitcoin cash reclaimed the spot as the third-largest cryptocurrency, according to Coinmarketcap.com.

Despite Monday's steep slide, bitcoin cash is still up about 110% since its inception on August 1, when it split from the original bitcoin network.

"More exchanges are trading bitcoin cash now," Sebastian Quinn-Watson of Blockchain Global told Business Insider.

Some Bitcoin exchanges and wallets didn't immediately upgrade their infrastructure after the bitcoin/bitcoin cash split, so most holders of the new cryptocurrency weren't able to actively trade their holdings until last week.

"Now most people can buy and sell it (finally), so the wider speculative boom is on," he added.

Josh Olszewicz, a bitcoin trader and bitcoin cash skeptic, also told Business Insider that speculation triggered bitcoin cash's price spike. He said there's a "tinfoil" hat theory circling around the web that the main backers of bitcoin cash are inflating its price.

"All they have to do is pump [its price] to increase mining profitability and hope miners jump ship to [bitcoin cash]," Olszewicz said.

Recently, bitcoin cash became more profitable to mine than Bitcoin, according to CoinDesk.

Screen Shot 2017 08 21 at 1.17.22 PM