Bitcoin up nearly 16% against USD in volatile session

The heavy selling pressure seen on the BTC/USD remained persistent over the weekend, pushing the pair to its lowest level in two-months at 1,760. However, the pair gathered traction once again to record its best daily performance since its record setting rally in June. As of writing, the BTC/USD is trading at 2,180, up nearly 16% on the day.

The most recent sell-off was triggered after a report by CoinDesk, an independent publisher with a focus on digital currencies, revealed that the total value of all publicly traded cryptocurrencies fell to $61 billion (-47%) in the last 30 days, after reaching an all time high of $115 billion in June. The uncertainty surrounding the decision over the protocol reform, which has a deadline of August 1, has been the primary reason why the Bitcoin has been losing interest lately. However, it seems like the miners are moving closer to a consensus, allowing the digital currencies make a strong comeback.

CoinDesk explains: 

"As of today, about 43% of bitcoin's mining power is signaling for the change, including AntPool, BitClub, Bixin, BTC.com and BitFury – and other mining pools may be on the way. Slush Pool, which oversees about 5% of the hashrate, said that it will soon signal as well. As of now, there is no way to tell which are running the code."

"Still, all miners need to do to lock in the update is signal support for the change via a code proposal called BIP91. If a total of 80% of miners do so within the next 336 blocks, a period of about two days, the long-proposed code change Segregated Witness will be activated on the network."

"While surprising, the move is likely due to a perceived need to upgrade the protocol to support SegWit before August 1."