Bitcoin cash plunges as investors look to dump their coins

The price of bitcoin cash, a spinoff cryptocurrency of bitcoin, has taken a beating over the last 24 hours as investors look to dump their coins.

According to data from Coinmarketcap.com, bitcoin cash is down about 12% Thursday, at $278 per coin.

Meanwhile, bitcoin is up over 2% to $3,429.

On August 1, bitcoin split in two after a years-long battle in the cryptocurrency community over the rules that should guide bitcoin's network.

That split resulted in the creation of bitcoin cash, which was spun out of the same blockchain network as bitcoin - almost like a copy of it - but built to process more transactions more quickly.

Many folks in the community think bitcoin cash's price has been inflated by issues with the technology underpinning the coin.

Aaron Lasher, the chief marketing officer of Breadwallet, one of the largest bitcoin wallet companies, told Business Insider that the bitcoin cash price plunge Thursday is likely linked to selling pressure from folks who can now transfer their coins from wallets, where investors store their coins, to exchanges, where coins can be bought and sold.

The majority of bitcoin cash holders who have their holdings in a private wallet can't do anything with it at this point, according to Lasher. Basically, it's stuck, kind of like a pending deposit on your checking account.

Lasher told Business Insider that wallets, Breadwallet included, are playing catch-up, and working on updating their infrastructure so bitcoin cash investors can move their coins over to exchanges where they can be actively traded.

Breadwallet put up a blog post on their website on Thursday to show users how they can "hack" their own wallets to move their coins over to an exchange to sell them.

"Basically, it involves setting up another wallet and then making some modifications," Lasher said. "It's not hard for someone with the expertise and probably takes 20 minutes."

But it's not something the average user could do.

"There are people who want their money now and they don't necessarily care about security," he said.

In the short term, Lasher says, selling pressure will drag the price of bitcoin cash down. In the long run, however, bitcoin's price could appreciate if it proves itself as a viable alternative to bitcoin.