Prices of the most well-known digital currencies that are associated to the bitcoin and ethereum network took a plunge in the session. The digital currency extended its draw back from records set last months, even as the nascent market shows signs of maturing.
Bitcoin has been gaining popularity lately as an overwhelming mass of miners, the computer operators who maintain its blockchain network, established a software upgrade that will boost that speed of processing transactions which allows it to avoid a split that could have resulted in multiple versions of the digital currency.
The slump in prices could have been driven by a division of developers who are supporting the split in the bitcoin blockchain instead.
The software update called, Segregated Witness, or SegWit, went into production on Bitcoin’s blockchain on August 24, according to Elizabeth Stark, the CEO and co-founder of Lightning Labs.
In the latest reports, a singles bitcoin which hit an all-time high above the $3,000 mark on June 11 of this year significantly took a plunge of 6.6% to be sold at $2,595.54. While ether, the currency underpinning the ethereum network, tumbled 9.8% to trade at $201.34. Ether peaked at $395.16 on June 13, according to cryptocurrency research-and-data site Coindesk.
Bitcoin’s market value has risen by more than 160% since the start of the year, sending its total market value to $42.4 billion while the ascent of ether in 2017 has been even more impressive. Since the year started, ether pushed passed its former record by 2,500% and is now worth $19.25 billion.