After reaching an all-time high of $3,018 on the 11th of June, there was a correction and for the following month, bitcoin value remained within range around $2,500. On the 16th of July, though, the coin’s value dropped to 2-month lows of $1,938. At this point, investors were really worried and even feared that bitcoin would crash. The problem? Possibility of a hard fork, a split in bitcoin software.
The bitcoin network had been facing scaling problems due to the high demand for the coin. The unprecedented high demand had caused transactions to become slower and more expensive to perform. One solution was to create a new bitcoin network that could handle the high traffic, but not everyone backed the idea. The new bitcoin network would have split bitcoin into two, with perhaps disastrous consequences. The fear of a split was becoming more of a reality, and investors pulled out, causing the split.