The majority of the world's cryptocurrencies have been reasonably stable during trade today and consolidated after pushing notably higher over the last couple of days.
One crypto, however, has not stopped climbing higher. At present the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) price is up 23% since this time yesterday and 8.4% since this morning at US$1,231 per token according to Coin Market Cap.
This gives the world's fourth-largest cryptocurrency a market capitalisation of US$20.9 billion.
What happened?
Following revelations that U.S. regulators have no plans to ban cryptocurrencies, but merely will look to make them safer, trader sentiment has been improving greatly in the industry this week.
And sentiment around Bitcoin Cash has been particularly positive. This is believed to be down to the view that many experts see the altcoin as the heir apparent to the bitcoin (BTC) throne.
As we have discussed many times before, bitcoin has a number of shortcomings which are likely to prevent it from ever being able to be considered as a currency. These include the long processing times and high transaction fees that have materialised as it has scaled.
Bitcoin Cash has been designed in such a way that scalability is not an issue, meaning quick processing times and negligible transaction fees.
And while other altcoins including Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA), and Stellar Lumens (XLM) are also able to achieve this, the current flavour of the month with traders appears to be Bitcoin Cash.
Where next for the Bitcoin Cash price?
Whilst I doubt it will be reaching the US$4,053 high it made in late December any time soon, if crypto markets continue to remain positive then it could easily push higher from here.
However, we have seen time and time again how sentiment can shift wildly in a matter of hours.
Because of this, I think investors should stay clear of the industry and continue to watch on from the safety of the sidelines instead.
