Bitcoin Cash More Than Tripled in Just 2 Days, and No One's Exactly Sure Why

If you think your portfolio has put on a show since the end of the Great Recession, it's probably just a blip next to the returns of cryptocurrencies over the past couple of months. Since the year began, bitcoin has risen by more than 300%, while digital currency Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has vaulted higher by almost 3,900%! No, that's not a misprint -- that's a 3,900% return on your investment in less than eight full months.

Of course, the ride has been anything but smooth. Bitcoin wound up plunging by more than $1,000 per coin a little over a month ago when it became apparent that software engineers and the bitcoin community may not come to a consensus about the future of its blockchain. Blockchain is the decentralized digital ledger than underlies bitcoin and logs all transactions.

Image source: Getty Images.

Source: Fool.com