The cryptocurrency market is having a stellar 24 hours with gains being seen across the board.
This has added an extra US$1.5 billion to the entire market since earlier this morning, giving it a market value of US$343.7 billion and bringing its 24-hour gain to a sizeable 5.5% according to Coin Market Cap.
Whilst some of the heavy lifting has been done by the bitcoin (BTC) price which is up 2.6% over the last 24 hours to US$8,147.18 per coin, the biggest contributors have been the altcoins.
At the time of writing the Ripple (XRP) price, Litecoin (LTC) price, EOS (EOS) price, and Cardano (ADA) price are all up at least 4% since this time yesterday.
However, the best performing major altcoin has been bitcoin offshoot Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
During the last 24 hours the Bitcoin Cash price has stormed a remarkable 16% higher to US$883.32. This has lifted its market capitalisation to over US$15 billion.
Why is the Bitcoin Cash price storming higher?
Traders have been fighting to get hold of the bitcoin spin off after the CEO of a digital currency investment firm declared the crypto bear market over and suggested that altcoins were ready for a comeback.
Brian Kelly from BKCM told CNBC that Bitcoin Cash was due for a breakout and pointed to the coin's increased volatility and volume as the proof of its growth potential.
Well, this certainly has proven to be the case over the last 24 hours, though you could argue that his words have created a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The real test will be the coming days. When cryptocurrencies surge there is usually a profit-taking sell off that follows. If one occurs then we could be back to square one again, but if it pushes higher over the next few days then perhaps Bitcoin Cash will move onto bigger and better things.
I'll certainly be watching on with interest.
