Bitcoin up more than $200 on Friday, heads for flat weekly close

The digital currency Bitcoin gained traction on Friday after the rival Ether dropped more than 5% against the USD, and pushed the BTC/USD pair above the $2800 threshold for the first time since Monday. With this latest upsurge, the pair is about to close a volatile week little changed around that mentioned level.

Commenting on this week's price action, Coindesk's Pete Rizzo, wrote, "while bitcoin's long-raging scaling debate may soon reach a conclusion of sorts (with the integration of the Segregated Witness now scheduled for early August), it's not going to be without twists. For one, the cryptocurrency is about to see the first large-scale fork of its live blockchain, with some miners and businesses vowing to create a separate project called Bitcoin Cash."

In addition to crypto currency's strength, the greenback weakness also seems to have played a part in the pair's recovery seen in the second half of the week. As of writing, the US Dollar Index is losing 0.65% on the day at 93.15 and is headed for its lowest weekly close since April 2016.