The New Year has only just got underway, but 2020 is already proving to be a roller-coaster for investors in Bitcoin SV.
The Bitcoin Cash rival has experienced some incredible price surges over the past couple of weeks, making it one of the best-performing coins of the year so far.
But why has Bitcoin SV been pumping so much? Let’s take a look at what can influence a BSV price surge.
Bitcoin SV – the story so far
Bitcoin SV was created out of the hard fork of Bitcoin Cash on November 15 2018.
Led by Craig Wright, who famously claims to be Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto, the split aimed to restore the proposed original vision of the Bitcoin protocol.
Since the fork, Bitcoin SV has proved popular among investors, and it currently ranks as the fifth-largest coin on CoinMarketCap.
Other than a small rally last summer, 2019 proved to be a fairly tepid year for the Bitcoin SV price. It started 2019 valued at $92 and finished just $5 higher at $97.
Things couldn’t be more different in 2020. Bitcoin SV has pumped 300% since the start of the year, hitting highs of $372 and briefly overtaking Bitcoin Cash as the fourth-largest crypto coin by market cap.
There is a lot of speculation about what has influenced the recent surges in the Bitcoin SV price, with the most common theory surrounding Craig Wright’s recent lawsuit with the Dave Kleiman estate.
The lawsuit against Craig Wright
Developments in a long-running legal case against Wright have seen the Bitcoin SV price experiencing massive gains as well as losses.
The lawsuit was initiated by Ira Kleiman, the brother of Wright’s former and now deceased partner David Kleiman – with whom Wright claims to have developed the early Bitcoin protocol.
Ira Kleiman sued Wright on the grounds that the estate should be entitled to half of the Bitcoins Dave Kleiman and Wright mined together – which would be worth billions of dollars today.
Wright said he was unable to access the Bitcoins because they had been moved to a blind trust, and that a bonded courier would deliver the keys to the funds.
On January 14 – when the Bitcoin SV price hit its all-time high – various sources suggested that Wright had managed to get details of the accounts containing the Bitcoin fortune.
However, he has so far only produced the encryption key which unlocks a list of total Bitcoin holdings and has not provided the private keys necessary to access the funds themselves. As such, the FOMO eventually wore off and the Bitcoin SV price dropped back down.
As a result, the pressure is still on Wright to deliver the final private keys, which he claims will arrive before February 3.
More volatility on the horizon?
Whatever the reasons for the Bitcoin SV price surges, it looks like investors should brace themselves for more volatility over the coming months.
Bitcoin SV’s “Genesis” hard fork, due to take place at the beginning of February, could result in volatility around the event.
Meanwhile, the Kleiman vs Wright case is yet to be resolved and is due to go to trial shortly, so investors should expect further ups and downs in the Bitcoin SV price as it develops.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.