#Bitcoin falls, futures for new 'bitcoin cash' briefly leap nearly 50% as 'miners' officially split currency.#

Bitcoin traded slightly lower Tuesday as digital currency miners completed a split of the digital currency and worked to create more of the new, split-off coin called bitcoin cash.
"A Bitcoin block was just mined that's invalid for Bitcoin Cash nodes! [That] means the chain has now forked. Bitcoin Cash is one block behind," Bitcoin Magazine said on its liveblog at 9:24 a.m., ET. Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin co-founded the magazine in 2012.
Bitcoin data website btcforkmonitor.info also confirmed the split.

Futures for the new "bitcoin cash," an alternative version promoted by a minority of developers, gave back much of an initial 48 percent jump to $422 to traded 9 percent higher near $310 as of 12:38 p.m., ET, according to CoinMarketCap.
Analysts noted that bitcoin cash required the same amount of computational work as bitcoin, but a much smaller number of digital currency miners were trying to create more bitcoin cash.
Bitcoin Magazine pointed out in its live blog that, due to the low level of mining power dedicated to bitcoin cash, "current estimates suggest it could well take hours before a [bitcoin cash] block is found." The block is part of the blockchain technology on which digital currencies like bitcoin are based.
Bitcoin cash futures 1-day performance

Source: CoinMarketCap
As of midday ET, trading in bitcoin cash was available on some exchanges, but remained a fraction of bitcoin's price.
Kraken Exchange, which has about 10 percent of U.S.-dollar bitcoin trade volume, showed on its website that some trades for bitcoin cash were pricing the new coin around $195.
"The fact the block is taking so long is making people reevaluate," said Stefan Thomas, chief technology officer for financial technology firm Ripple, which has its own digital currency.
Thomas noted miners could give up on trying to mine bitcoin cash, halting its development. However, the bigger question for him was "whether bitcoin has solved its long-term governance issue or kicked the can down the road."
Tuesday's bitcoin split was planned by a few who disagreed with a more popular upgrade proposal called SegWit2x, which is set to fully implement this fall.
Bitcoin 1-day performance

Source: CoinDesk
Bitcoin traded more than 6 percent lower just below $2,700 after dropping to a low of $2,670 earlier in the morning, according to CoinDesk. The digital currency rose more than 10 percent in July and has more than doubled in value this year.
Ethereum traded 2.5 percent higher to $209, according to CoinDesk.
Digital currency "miners" could officially begin coding the new bitcoin cash blockchain after 8:20 a.m., ET Tuesday. Analysts had estimated the split into bitcoin and "bitcoin cash" would occur by around 10 a.m.
Direct holders of bitcoin should have received both versions of the currency after the split.
However, Coinbase said it will not support the new bitcoin cash. The firm operates the GDAX exchange, which said in an email alert it has temporarily disabled bitcoin withdrawals and deposits Tuesday "in preparation for the upcoming fork."
Bitfinex, which has nearly a third of U.S.-dollar bitcoin trade volume, tweeted mid-Tuesday morning that it re-enabled bitcoin deposits and withdrawals. The exchange earlier suspended bitcoin deposits ahead of the split.
Bitfinex said in a separate blog post Tuesday that it will decide whether to list bitcoin cash "based on how the situation evolves."