Bitcoin Cash Leaves Big Brother in the Dust as the November Hard Fork Nears

Bitcoin gained just 0.32% on Friday, following a 0.59% rise on Thursday, to end the day at $6,427, with 4 consecutive days of gains reducing the week’s loss to 0.97%.

While the loss for the week is a modest one, the lack of volatility will give the Bitcoin bulls a bit of a challenge through the weekend to reverse the loss, particularly should Bitcoin continue to move within the tight ranges seen in recent weeks.

Friday saw Bitcoin strike an early morning intraday high $6,456.1 and a late morning intraday low $6,389.9 before settling in the afternoon, the first major resistance level at $6,449.03 tested early, while Bitcoin managed to hold above the day’s major support levels.

In stark contrast to Bitcoin’s day, Bitcoin Cash rallied by 8.98% on Friday, to move into positive territory for the week, with Bitcoin Cash hard fork news being attributed to the mid-day rally that dove Bitcoin Cash to $470 levels before easing back.

As the market has seen with previous forks, it all boils down to where the support comes from and, with Bitcoin.com announcing support for the BCH version that falls under the Bitcoin ABC team, concerns over a possible hash war and breakup of the BCH blockchain into multiple versions eased. The announcements come ahead of a scheduled 15^th November fork.

The 15^th November hard fork comes as a result of disagreements on consensus changes, with the hard fork expected to lead to multiple Bitcoin Cash chains, one of which would eventually become the dominant one.

Uncertainty over the eventual outcome of the hard fork has raise questions over stability in Bitcoin Cash ahead of the fork and, while support from Bitcoin.com and possibly Binance are both positives for the BCH version, the game is not over yet and any price collapse in BCH ahead of the fork is expected to ultimately benefit Bitcoin.

With less than 2-weeks to go, it could go either way for Bitcoin Cash, a slide through $300 levels or a break out to $600 levels, more material moves unlikely when considering the key drivers for the broader market near-term.

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For Bitcoin, it’s looking like another slow day ahead, Bitcoin down by just 0.01% to $6,426.6 at the time of writing, with the Bitcoin Cash rally on Friday having had little impact on Bitcoin price action.

For the day ahead, holding onto $6,420 levels through the morning would support a run at the first major resistance level at $6,458.77, while the second major resistance level at $6,490.53 will pin Bitcoin back from $6,500 levels last struck on Monday.

Failure to hold onto $6,420 levels could see Bitcoin slide back to $6,300 levels to call on support at the first major support level at $6,392.57 before recovering, heavier losses not expected barring negative news hitting the wires.

While Bitcoin Cash found support from the Bitcoin.com announcement, Bitcoin and the broader market will be looking out for the SEC decision on the 9 Bitcoin ETF applications, with the SEC having set a 5^th November deadline.

Any approvals and the 8.98% Bitcoin Cash rally will likely be dwarfed, though it does remain to be seen whether it will take more than a physically backed Bitcoin ETF, such as the VanEck-SolidX ETF, to really bring Bitcoin back to life.