The bitcoin price has continued its rollercoaster ride on Wednesday with a sharp drop lower.
At the time of writing the cryptocurrency is fetching US$16,487 according to CoinDesk, down over 13% from US$19,000 around this time yesterday.
What happened?
There appears to be a number of factors behind the sudden decline in the bitcoin price over the last 24 hours.
The first is related to reports that bitcoin.com co-founder Emil Oldenburg has sold all his bitcoin, claiming it to be the riskiest investment out there at the moment.
In an interview with Sweden's Breakit, Oldenburg stated his belief that the bitcoin network is unusable and that rival bitcoin cash is the future.
Further to this, another catalyst to yesterday's decline appears to be the decision by the Coinbase exchange to allow its users to buy and sell bitcoin cash.
Bitcoin cash spun off from bitcoin earlier this year and is seen as a more efficient cryptocurrency that provides quicker speeds and lower costs.
Coinbase's decision follows news that popular bitcoin payments processor BitPay and major cryptocurrency storage company Blockchain would also support bitcoin cash.
These events look to have led to investors selling out of bitcoin and buying into bitcoin cash instead.
The bitcoin cash price has risen 54% over the last 24 hours to US$3,360 according to CoinMarketCap.
What now?
In technological terms bitcoin cash is easily superior to bitcoin. So if the technology is going to be used in the future then it would be my preferred pick of the two.
However, bitcoin cash is by no means the best cryptocurrency technologically. I believe this title belongs to Ripple, also known as XRP. Which, if I were a betting man, would be where I put my money.
It is early days though and I imagine a lot of money will still be won and lost with cryptocurrencies over the next 12 months.
