Bitcoin falls, new 'bitcoin cash' briefly leaps nearly 50% then dives as digital currency splits

A split in bitcoin into "bitcoin cash" took effect Tuesday morning.

Bitcoin prices edged lower Tuesday.
Futures for the new currency, "bitcoin cash," briefly shot higher before erasing gains.

Bitcoin traded slightly lower Tuesday as digital currency miners completed a split of the digital currency and worked to create more of the new, split-off coin called bitcoin cash.

"A Bitcoin block was just mined that's invalid for Bitcoin Cash nodes! [That] means the chain has now forked. Bitcoin Cash is one block behind,"

Bitcoin Magazine said on its liveblog at 9:24 a.m., ET. Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin co-founded the magazine in 2012.
Bitcoin data website btcforkmonitor.info also confirmed the split.

Futures for the new "bitcoin cash," an alternative version promoted by a minority of developers, gave back all of an initial 48 percent jump to $422 to drop about 26 percent and trade near $214 as of 4:55 p.m., ET, according to CoinMarketCap.

Trading in bitcoin cash was available on some exchanges, but remained a fraction of bitcoin's price.

Kraken Exchange, which has about 10 percent of U.S.-dollar bitcoin trade volume, showed on its website that trades for bitcoin cash were pricing the new coin around $197.

"Bitcoin Cash will have to prove itself over time and gain trust from users," Amaury Sechet, lead developer behind bitcoin cash, told CNBC. "The current price may [seem] low but this is actually an amazing level of support."