Bitcoin [BTC] plummet caused by negative sentiments surrounding Bitcoin Cash [BCH] hard fork, says BKCM CEO

The #1 cryptocurrency in the market, Bitcoin [BTC], recently saw a plunge below the $6000 mark over rising concerns of mining and the upcoming Bitcoin Cash [BCH] hard fork. The market for the coin continued to move below the $5500 mark and is currently resting below its most crucial resistance in its bearish run over the year.

Brian Kelly, a partner at BKCM, a hedge fund, recently appeared on CNBC’s Fast Money to speak about the “meltdown mode” that Bitcoin is going through, with the coin dropping more than 10% in recent times. He stated that this breakout had Bitcoin see the lowest level it has this year, after a period of low volatility almost in the entire history of Bitcoin. He went on to say that things suddenly exploded this year, and added:

“So Bitcoin Cash, which is the one that forked off of Bitcoin last year, is doing a hard fork. A hard fork is effectively a software upgrade. That’s the easiest way to think about it. When you do a software upgrade, everybody usually agrees. In this particular case, everybody is not agreeing about what that software upgrade should be.”

According to him, this has led to a “crypto civil war”, stating that that was what people were calling it. Moreover, he stated that this has caused concern between both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash communities over slower networks. He said:

“That software upgrade might not go through or if it does go through we’ll end up with some chaos. People started selling, that triggered stops, everybody got concerned and that’s what happened today. The entire market sell-down.”

Kelly offered his opinion about the sell-off, stating that it was a short-term type of event, calling it an opportunity to buy. He also stated that he also bought up digital assets at his fund. He stated:

“I mean there’s just nothing going on. I was falling asleep back then then. All of a sudden today it falls apart, breaks through the year’s lows down the $5500.”

He also mentioned the difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum in terms of the performance over the last day, with Ethereum actually performing better than Bitcoin. Kelly stated:

“It outperformed Bitcoin particularly on the upside. If you’re looking to play this and you don’t understand the hard fork. I would say if you don’t understand what a hard fork is, do not jump into that pool right now. It is the deep end but take a look at Ethereum might be interesting that’s something I bought today.”