Bitcoin Cash skyrockets in value after Coinbase adds support

UPDATE: Dec. 20, 2017, 9:28 a.m. EST This piece has been updated by comments from Coinbase's CEO concerning insider trading.

Oh, you're still into Bitcoin? That's cool. Except Bitcoin Cash is the hot new cryptocurrency now.

Coinbase, the popular cryptocurrency exchange, announced Tuesday it would add support for Bitcoin Cash.

No, Bitcoin Cash isn't new. It arrived on the scene back in August. (Its origin story is kind of complicated -- luckily, we've got a helpful explainer here.) But the addition of Coinbase support is like a blessing from the Cryptocurrency Pope, and so Bitcoin Cash's value ascended into the heavens.

If you happened to have knowledge of Coinbase's announcement ahead of time, you could have made a pretty penny, which is why the company quickly tried to quell any accusations of insider trading.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

That wasn't the end of it. Coinbase CEO and cofounder Brian Armstrong published a blog post announcing an investigation into its employees trading practices ahead of the exchange adding Bitcoin Cash.

"Given the price increase in the hours leading up the announcement, we will be conducting an investigation into this matter. If we find evidence of any employee or contractor violating our policies — directly or indirectly — I will not hesitate to terminate the employee immediately and take appropriate legal action," he wrote.

As of 8:58 p.m. PT on Tuesday, Bitcoin Cash was valued at $3,108, up from just over $2,000 a day earlier.

So, do YOU own any Bitcoin Cash? Possibly! If you owned Bitcoin on the date of the "hard fork" on Aug. 1, you also now own Bitcoin Cash. Congratulations.