Bitcoin Taps $65K as Hard Fork Fears Take Hold
Bitcoin's price surged past $65,000 on Friday, reaching a peak of $65,340 at Bitstamp. This marks its highest point in August so far and its first return to that level since July 27.
The rally was driven by investors accumulating coins in anticipation of a potential hard fork, which would automatically grant them equivalent tokens on the split chain. However, despite the risks, the market appears to be unfazed by the controversy surrounding BIP 110, a proposal aimed at changing Bitcoin's proof-of-work consensus mechanism.
Core developer Luke Dashjr has suggested that if BIP 110 fails, a PoW change would be 'the only option', which some see as a risk of a potential chain split. Nevertheless, the debate appears to have had a limited impact on bitcoin's price, with some market observers attributing the upward trend to investors betting on a hard fork.