Bitcoin jumps by record 21% after miners' split

New York

BITCOIN extended gains to a record as the cryptocurrency makes strides in putting the scaling debate behind it. The digital currency jumped as much as 21 per cent to an unprecedented US$3,423.37, even after bitcoin's division last week. The debate has revolved around how to upgrade its underlying technology.

Most of the bitcoin ecosystem supports a solution called SegWit2x, while those backing a different scaling mechanism called Bitcoin Cash split into a different blockchain last week.

"The miner-orchestrated 'hard fork' has had limited traction and will not impact the price or future development of bitcoin," said Aurelien Menant, chief executive officer of Gatecoin Ltd, a cryptocurrency exchange in Hong Kong, referring to the split. "The activation of SegWit is a significant milestone in bitcoin's technological evolution…