In Brief Barely 48 hours since its spin-off from the Bitcoin blockchain, Bitcoin Cash has already surged past other cryptocurrencies to become the third-biggest in terms of market capitalization. How the currency will fare over time is still up for debate, as it still lacks support from several mining pools and major exchanges. [Un]Expected Boom

Less thantwo days aftersplitting from the main Bitcoin network, Bitcoin Cash[BCC] now ranks third amongst the worlds most valuable cryptocoins. The budding cryptocurrency has reached a market cap of more $7.7 billion as of this writing, overtaking Ripples $6.7 billion market cap.

With a market cap of alittle more than $44 billion, the original Bitcoin currency is leading the market, while Ethereum comes in second at $20.9 billion. In terms of value per coin, Bitcoin Cash is even ahead of Ethereums current valuation of $223.54, with a per unit value of $470.27.

The surge in Bitcoin Cash comes despite a lack of support from several mining pools and major exchanges like Coinbase and BitMEX. Some Coinbase users are eventhreatening to sue the exchangefor not recognizing the currency.

Blockchain Globals recently re-opened Australian Cryptocurrency Exchange, on the other hand, is confirming Bitcoin Cash trades and claims to have seen a huge demand for the currency. We are receiving a lot of off-market orders for bitcoin cash theyre exploding! venture partner Sebastian Quinn-Watson told Business Insider.

The creation of Bitcoin Cash was the result of anongoing debate regarding how to scale Bitcoin blockchain transactions, and experts are currently dividedon how the split will ultimately play out.

For now, this sudden increase in value is understandable. Bitcoin Cash carries all the history of the original Bitcoin platform up until the fork on August 1, which means anyone with Bitcoin now has an equalamount of Bitcoin Cash.

Eventually, Bitcoin Cash should be able to stabilize itself for market exchanges, but right now, speculation is causing a surge in initial interest. People are selling their Bitcoin positions and buying Bitcoin Cash as a proposition that it is the new coin that has more value in the future, explainedQuinn-Watson. Its a bit speculative.

No one knows for surehow long Bitcoin Cash can sustain this upshot. As with other digital currencies, Bitcoin Cashs value depends mainly on how much value investors assign to it and how easily it can be used for real-world transactions.

Theres no infrastructure available out of the box to support BCC, Fran Strajnar, co-founder and CEO of Brave New Coin,told CNBC. The network needs further support and infrastructure needs to be as easy as Bitcoin; otherwise, its over for BCC.

Disclosure: Several members of the Futurism team, including the editors of this piece, are personal investors in a number of cryptocurrency markets. Their personal investment perspectives have no impact on editorial content.

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In Less Than 2 Days, Bitcoin Cash Becomes Third Biggest Cryptocurrency - Futurism