After a torrid start to the week, digital currencies were showing signs of a revival, with most major coins holding onto yesterday’s gains in early Thursday trading.
After rising as much as 6% Wednesday, bitcoin,
BTCUSD, +0.49%
the worlds largest digital currency, was little changed Thursday, last trading at $6,355.49, down 0.1% since Wednesday 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken crypto exchange. The broad-based rally pushed the total value of all cryptocurrencies to $209 million, $20 billion off Monday’s low, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Read: Cryptocurrencies are heading ‘closer to zero,’ says former PayPal CEO
Ethereum upgrade nearing
Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of the ethereum network, gave an update on the pending upgrade of the network late Wednesday via Twitter. In a long series of tweets, the Russian-born programmer said the Casper protocol upgrade that aims to solve the scaling issue with the blockchain is nearing.
Scaling is the ability to process a significant number of transactions more quickly. Currently, the ethereum network can process anywhere between three and seven transactions per second, which is slightly more than bitcoin, but well below the thousands that credit card companies like Visa
V, +1.04%
and Mastercard
MA, +1.63%
Read: Are cash-strapped ICOs behind Ether’s underperformance?
Altcoins continue rally
Altcoins, or coins alternative to bitcoin, are trading higher Thursday. Ether
ETHUSD, +1.96%
which has been battered of late, is looking to log back-to-back winning session trading 2.5% higher at $294.50, Bitcoin Cash
BCHUSD, +2.55%
is up 3.5% at $532.60, Litecoin
LTCUSD, +1.27%
has added 1.7% to $56.86 and Ripple’s XRP
XRPUSD, +2.02%
is trading at 29 cents, up 1.2%.
With the August contract expired the Cboe Global Markets Inc.’s September contract
XBTU8, +0.47%
is the most active, trading up 1.3% at $6,440 while the CME Group Inc August contract
BTCQ8, +0.16%
is trading 0.6% higher at $6,415.
Read: A team at Northwestern think they have solved one of bitcoin’s biggest problems
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