Coinbase, the popular trading platform is working on enabling bitcoin cash trading on its platform but is facing volatility troubles.
- Bitcoin cash is trading higher after a slate of announcements from Coinbase.
- The popular trading platform is working on enabling bitcoin cash trading on its platform but is facing volatility troubles.
- Watch bitcoin cash's price move in real time here.
Bitcoin cash is up 32.03% on Wednesday to $3,5456.90 after Coinbase, the popular crypto trading app, enabled and then disabled enabled then disabled trading of the cryptocurrency.
Coinbase said it would enable bitcoin cash trading for the first time Tuesday evening, and did so for about two minutes. But the company said action was too volatile and it temporarily shut down trading and cleared all orders.
Trading is set to resume at 9 a.m. PT Wednesday, though initial trades will be made in "post only" mode to establish liquidity in the market, according to the company.
Bitcoin cash was created as an offshoot of the original bitcoin in August. The new coin was designed to be faster than its predecessor and was built on bitcoin's existing transaction history. That meant people who owned bitcoin before the split were eligible to receive an equivalent number of bitcoin cash tokens when the cryptocurrency was created.
Coinbase originally opted not to allow bitcoin cash trading on its platform, but surprised users by reversing its decision on Tuesday. The price of bitcoin cash popped on the news and made additional gains on Wednesday as Coinbase readies to resume trading on its platform.
The company is investigating the possibility of insider trading by its employees who had prior knowledge of the announcement. Bitcoin cash started rising before Coinbase's announcement, which led CEO Brian Armstrong to announce he was looking into the potential activity.
Armstrong said he will not hesitate to terminate any employees who violated company policies.