Traders looking to benefit from the coming Bitcoin Gold fork have chosen to exit various altcoins in favour of stacking up on Bitcoin. The Bitcoin price surged past $4,900 on Tuesday and approached an all time high position as traders chose to dump altcoin markets and shift their holdings back into Bitcoin. The Bitcoin Gold fork set for October 25 and the SegWit2x hard fork that is scheduled for November have investors expecting a pair of free windfalls for holding the premier cryptocurrency.

This shift in thinking has also increased Bitcoin’s dominance over the cryptocurrency economy with Bitcoin currently occupying around 52% of the total market cap. Bitcoin had lost a considerable share of the market in 2017, with Bitcoin’s share of the total market cap falling as low as 34%, even though it had started the year at 88%.

With traders beginning to exit their altcoin holdings and push their wealth in to Bitcoin, the top cryptocurrency has reached its highest share of market cap since May. This has resulted in a concerted loss of wealth for most altcoins with each cryptocurrency in the top 10 experiencing a significant price decrease in the past few days with around half posting double-digit declines.

The action of the last few days shows that traders are positioning themselves to profit from upcoming airdrops similar to the Bitcoin Cash airdrop that took place after the hard fork of August 1. With the Bitcoin Gold fork scheduled for October 25, and the SegWit2x fork proposed to take place in November investors are looking to build nest eggs that will reap benefits.

However, it is difficult to predict just how much of an effect the forks will continue to have on prices as traders should look to re-enter their altcoin positions after November. There is also the possibility that investors will decide to remain in Bitcoin due to the increase in price and the possibility of trading the new forked coins for extra Bitcoin, especially as the SegWit2x fork is expected to produce coins that will be more valuable than those produced by Bitcoin Gold.

The changes in price and volume are again highlighting the extremely volatile nature of cryptocurrency investors in addition to their general naivety. The hard forks may have had the effect of causing traders to exit their Bitcoin positions for safer alternatives but this has not happened, with few people worried about a lack of replay protection or the possibility of double spending SegWit2x coins and losing their original holdings.

There is also the possibility that the news could have been gently priced into the markets with investors and institutions gently managing their portfolios. The lure of free money has proved to be extremely powerful with many unable to resist the temptation to stock up on Bitcoin. More seasoned markets such as stocks and commodities seem to react completely differently with fundamental developments resulting in cautious behaviour, while more expected, longer-term developments are often factored in when trading in order to avoid rapid spikes.

These developments also coincide with the Chinese Party Congress on October 18 and if, as expected the incoming officials choose to relax the current restrictions on Bitcoin we should expect a flood of Chinese money re-entering the market. It is not difficult to see Bitcoin breaking its all time highs after November and soaring in value well into the new year.