London: Bitcoin dropped below $7,000 on Friday to trade more than 5 per cent down on the day, having fallen by well over $1,000 since hitting an all-time high on Wednesday. The crypto-currency dropped to $6,800 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange by 1200 GMT, before recovering a little to $6,870 just over 20 minutes later. On Wednesday around 1800 GMT, it had touched $7,888 after a software upgrade planned for next week that could have split the cryptocurrency in two was suspended.
As bitcoin fell, Bitcoin Cash — a clone of the original that was generated from another split on August 1 — surged, trading up as much as 35 per cent on the day at around $850, according to industry website Coinmarketcap. Despite losing almost 7 per cent this week, bitcoin is still up more than 600 per cent so far this year.
