'Bitcoin cash' soars to record high above $900 as 'mining' profits jump

After stagnating interest in the first two weeks of its existence, the bitcoin offshoot began climbing late last week after digital currency "miners" on Wednesday mined an eight megabyte bitcoin cash block. That demonstrated bitcoin cash could fulfill its promise of faster transaction speeds, which is determined by block size. The original bitcoin has a one megabyte block size and is set for an upgrade to a two megabyte block this fall.
The gains in bitcoin cash's price and built-in protocols that gradually reduce the difficulty of mining the digital currency have made the offshoot more attractive to miners. Bitcoin cash is now 69 percent more profitable to mine than the original bitcoin, according to data analysis from Coin Dance.
Digital currency miners often switch their mining power among different currencies depending on their relative profitability.
Relative profitability of bitcoin cash vs. bitcoin

• The bitcoin cash offshoot, bitcoin cash, jumped to a record high near $1,000 Saturday in high trade volume, primarily from South Korea.
• After bitcoin cash this week showed its potential for significantly increasing transaction speeds, digital currency "miners" have found it increasingly more profitable to mine the offshoot than original bitcoin.
• Bitcoin traded slightly lower Saturday but remained more than four times the price of bitcoin cash.