Investing.com – Bitcoin rose sharply on Wednesday after payments company Square (NYSE:SQ) said it was testing support for bitcoin through its payments app Cash while Bitcoin Cash struggled to pare losses.
On the U.S.-based Bitfinex exchange, bitcoin rose to $7,108.5, up $518.6, or 7.87% as the popular digital currency’s market cap surged to $119 billion.
Bitcoin continued to recover from its slump below $5,500 earlier this week as the digital attempted to test its recent high of $7895 after Square said it testing support for bitcoin to allow customers to buy and sell the digital currency through its payment app Cash.
The slump in bitcoin earlier in the week followed after an upgrade – segwit2x – to its network was cancelled last week, stoking uncertainty over the future of bitcoin as the Segwit2x upgrade was aimed at speeding up transactions on the bitcoin network.
The move led investors to pile into Bitcoin cash, betting that the bitcoin offshoot was more likely to be adopted as mainstream form of payment as it boasts both cheaper transactions costs and faster transaction processing times compared to that of bitcoin.
Bitcoin cash, however, has since retreated from its all-high of $2,790 to trade at $1222, down 2.51% while bitcoin gold rose 2.08% to $141.97.
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, fell 1.59% to $329.