Markets: Bitcoin rises slightly, Ether and Ethereum Classic gain amid price run for alternatives

Bitcoin rose slightly in Tuesday morning trading in Asia after falling below the key resistance line of US$20,000 on Monday morning. Ether posted the greatest gains in the crypto top ten by market cap as the rest of that list rose or fell by less than 1%.

Fast facts

• Bitcoin dropped 0.9% in the past 24 hours to US$19,817 at 8 a.m. in Hong Kong while Ether added 2.5% to US$1,617, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
• Ethereum Classic (ETC), the original chain from which the current Ethereum (ETH) network was forked, gained 22.1% to change hands at a two-week high of US$39.63 following the announcement that top mining pool BTC.com will be adding support for Ethereum Classic after of the Merge.
• The Merge is part of Ethereum’s highly anticipated transition to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism and has contributed to both ETC and ETH posting significant price gains in recent months.
• Bitcoin Cash, a fork of Bitcoin, is also outperforming the main blockchain, gaining 6.3% to US$125.63. The main Terra network (LUNA) is up 10% to US$1.99, while Terra Classic (LUNC), from which it was forked, is up 60% to US$0.0003995.
• LUNC was the token used to maintain the algorithmic stablecoin UST’s peg before its spectacular crash in May. LUNA was forked from that network to save the project from losing even more value. Bitcoin Cash was forked from Bitcoin to create a faster and cheaper alternative.
• U.S. markets were closed on Monday due to the Labor Day holiday.

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