Bitcoin Cash (BCH) surged to a fresh one-year high early Monday, extending its rally to more than 100% in the week after being one of the four cryptocurrencies listed on institutional-backed crypto exchange EDX Markets.
The token’s price rose 17% in the past 24 hours to as much as $226.44, the highest since May 2022. The CoinDesk Bitcoin Cash Price Index (BCX), which tracks the token’s price on multiple exchange venues, is now higher by 111% over the past week.
BCH has been benefiting from the launch of EDX Markets alongside rising trading volumes and social media interest, according to crypto research firm Santiment.
Backed by traditional finance heavy-weights Fidelity Digital Assets, Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities, EDX Markets opened trading last Tuesday, supporting BCH along with bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC).
The sudden price move has attracted retail trader attention, with social discussions about the token rising to their highest in three years and trading volumes this year hitting a record, crypto research firm Santiment tweeted Saturday.
The Bitcoin Cash network was forked from the original Bitcoin blockchain in July 2017 and aimed to serve as a payment network. Despite early optimism, the blockchain’s traffic is dwarfed by Bitcoin’s transaction numbers. Some $92 million in BCH has been transferred in the last 24 hours, compared to $11 billion in BTC, blockchain data by BitInfoCharts show. BCH is still 95% down from its $4,355 all-time high price reached in December 2017, according to CoinMarketCap.
