© Reuters. Bitcoin rises back above $7,500 level, Bitcoin Cash down 10%

Investing.com - The price of the digital currency bitcoin rose back above the $7,500 level on Thursday, extending a recovery from recent lows, while bitcoin alternative Bitcoin Cash was down around 10%.

On the U.S.-based Bitfinex exchange, was at $7,439.3 by 08:05 AM ET (1305 GMT) after earlier touching an intra-day high of $7,535.00.

Over the weekend, Bitcoin fell as much as 29% from its November 8 record high just shy of $7,900, before regaining ground.

The slump in prices came after the cancellation last week of a planned software upgrade that would have split the digital currency. The planned upgrade was opposed by bitcoin’s main software developers.

The upgrade would have roughly doubled the network’s processing capacity, or the number of bitcoin transactions the network can handle.

As bitcoin tumbled, traders shifted to bitcoin offshoot Bitcoin Cash, which was created from another software split on August 1, sending it surging to a record high of $2,790.00 on Sunday before pulling back.

was last at $1,056.90, down 10.89% for the day.

At current prices Bitcoin Cash has a total market capitalization of around $18 billion, making it the third most valuable cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin, which is known for sharp swings, has tended to rebound quickly from pullbacks. Even with the recent decline it has still risen more than 500% so far this year and at current prices has a total market cap of around $124 billion.

The sharp rise has given rise to fears of an asset bubble. But in a sign that the financial industry is starting to warm up to bitcoin, the world's largest derivative exchange operator CME Group (NASDAQ: ) this month announced plans to launch bitcoin futures later this year.

Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading, , the second most valuable cryptocurrency by market cap after bitcoin, was down 0.86% to $328.96.