Bitcoin Gold (CRYPTO: BTG) is bucking the wider selling trend in crypto markets today.
While its elder sibling Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and the world's number two crypto, Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), are both in the red over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin Gold is up 24%.
At the current price of US$24.57, the lesser known crypto has a market cap of US$422 million, placing it at number 98 on the list of top-100 cryptos.
Though it's worth noting that BTG is down 96% from its all-time highs of US$540, reached shortly after its launch in October 2017.
So, why is it surging today?
Image source: Getty Images
What is Bitcoin Gold?
Before we look at what may be driving the Bitcoin Gold price higher today, what exactly is this token?
Well, as we said, it's been around since October 2017. That's when it came into existence following what's known as a 'hard fork' with Bitcoin.
Part of the goal at the time was to make the token even more decentralised than the original. According to CoinMarketCap:
BTG enhances and extends the crypto space with a blockchain closely compatible with Bitcoin but without using resources like Bitcoin hash power…
As a hard fork of the original Bitcoin token, BTG aims to revolutionise the mining process by introducing a new proof-of-work algorithm that combats the scalability issues Bitcoin struggles with.
Why the big gain today?
We can't say with certainty, but it appears Bitcoin Gold could have gotten a boost from a tweet posted by Robert Kiyosaki, the author of personal finance book 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad'.
Here's what he posted on Twitter shortly before the crypto leapt from US$20 to US$32 inside an hour:
DAVOS, Switzerland IMF warns world faces greatest financial challenges since WWII. Global disaster has been coming for years. Desperate leaders will do desperate things. Workd War coming? God have mercy on us. Save gold, silver, Bitcoin, food, guns, and bullets.
That tweet has some 5,500 likes and has already been retweeted almost 1,000 times.
Overlooking the World War typo, crypto investors may have tuned into the gold and Bitcoin advice and opted to snap up some Bitcoin Gold.
We hope fewer took his advice to load up on guns and bullets!
