Bitcoin Prices Retreat Toward $4,100 While Bitcoin Cash Soars

Following a week of thrilling price gains and two all-times highs – $4,483 on August 15, and $4,520 on August 17 – bitcoin prices have now slumped back toward $4,000.

Opening the session at $4,159, price across global exchanges peaked early at $4,406 and have since steadily dropped and at press time had recovered sightly to $4,112. The low for the session was $4,040, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index.

Bitcoin's market capitalization now stands at over $67 billion, down from $73 billion two days ago, according to data from CoinMarketCap

While the price news isn't positive for holders of bitcoin, bitcoin cash – the new cryptocurrency created via a fork of the bitcoin blockchain on August 1 – has seen prices rocket to a new record high of $756 soon before press time.

Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, is currently trading sideways with prices currently around $293.

Looking more widely, the combined market cap of all cryptocurrencies has dropped to $141 billion from its all-time high of $144.7 billion on August 17.