Bitcoin is shaking up the cryptocurrency market, as it could fork into two cryptocurrencies, causing sharp falls in Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Zcash and in Bitcoin itself.

The cryptocurrency market is going through the worst moment in a long time, as all cryptocurrencies are losing a lot of value, but especially with respect to the USDT change. We see how Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Dash, Monero and Zcash, the most relevant values ​​in the cryptocurrency market with respect to the USDT change, register a 10% or more drop in Poloniex at the same time (Bitcoin close to 9% and Zcash 8.5%), saving Litecoin from the fire. What is the problem? Well, the usual, Bitcoin.

The trigger for Bitcoin to be below $ 1900, Ethereum below $ 150 and Zcash at just $ 150, is Bitcoin itself. The situation around the mother cryptocurrency is really complex and is causing very strong market instability. On July 31 and August 1, the SegWit2x protocol will be switched to Bitcoin, which raises the blocks from 1MB to 2MB with a scalability of the size of the blocks up to 4MB, which will mean a very drastic increase in difficulty, but it is not the only problem and it is that the first tests of the testnet, give a break.

Bitcoin needs to update its protocol to increase the difficulty and maintain the network. SegWit is required to not finish mining all the Bitcoin within a year, at the most, since if the block size is not increased, it is estimated that in 16 months all the existing Bitcoin could be mined. The other reason is that the nodes will receive compensation, something that is currently not happening and has ended up triggering the drastic reduction of nodes, because it was not interesting or attractive to have one and not receive a benefit. The counterpart to all this is the possible breakout of Bitcoin.

The breakdown of Bitcoin in two or more cryptocurrencies is a hypothesis that in the first test of the testnet for Bitcoin, has proven to be a reality and that is that from block 27070, there were problems in mining and the currency ended up splitting in two. If this happens, the BTCA (to call it somehow), would be Bitcoin itself, with a significant loss in value, which could fall to $ 600, while BTCB, a by-product, could have between 1-10% of the BTCA value. This situation, if it happens, would cause Ethereum to be the strongest cryptocurrency on the market, taking off at $ 2000 in a matter of hours, followed by Zcash, which could easily skyrocket to $ 1000.

This situation would affect the entire market, since it could be the case that all cryptocurrencies multiply that have an exchange value to dollars lower than $ 5, they could multiply their current value by up to one hundred, causing people to earn a lot in very little time. Litecoin, Ripple, Dash or Monero, would be the other great beneficiaries, who could see their value multiplied in hours by five and up to ten times its exchange value in dollars at the time of the break.

Right now, this completely anomalous situation has other effects and is that for some time the change of Ethereum, Ripple or Golem have been green in their change to Bitcoin, but now they are in red and those who stand out are Zcash and Litecoin, especially the latter, which rises more than 7%. This complex situation will have its culmination on July 31 and August 1, as we have said, where massive sales and exchanges are expected in a hurry, the days before the indicated dates and once SegWit2x is implemented and Bitcoin is operational, it has passed. Whatever has happened, the market will move higher and depending on the division, in two different ways.

GDAX, one of the most prominent exchange or pool houses in the world, has already said that it plans to deactivate Bitcoin operations from July 30 to August 1, until the activation of SegWit ends. This information seems to be another of the sources of instability in the market and it will continue to be quite unstable in the coming days, with practically total security.