Although hovering around the $100 range since mid-2022, Bitcoin Cash has skyrocketed after it was listed by a new crypto exchange that’s backed by big-time TradFi players—Citadel Securities, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab.
The new exchange, EDX Markets, offered only four cryptocurrencies at launch: Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. The price of Bitcoin Cash has more than doubled over the past week since the announcement, trading near $235 as of Tuesday morning. The coin’s price was up nearly 20% over the past 24 hours.
Bitcoin Cash got a boost when it was not named a security in the Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase filed earlier this month. EDX listing the token has given investors more confidence that regulators may be ignoring it.
In a 2018 video from a crypto event hosted by Bloomberg and Fidelity, now-SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said Bitcoin Cash, along with two other EDX-listed cryptocurrencies, Litecoin and Ether, were not securities. That statement differed from the SEC chairman’s oft-repeated stance that every crypto except Bitcoin is a security.
Bitcoin Cash was created following a dispute between Bitcoin’s users and developers over different visions for the future of the blockchain. In 2017, a group that wanted Bitcoin to focus more on consumer payments split, or forked, the blockchain to create Bitcoin Cash.
Despite being valued at vastly less than its namesake—Bitcoin was trading near $30,700 on Tuesday morning—Bitcoin Cash is still a top 20 cryptocurrency, with a market cap above $4.5 billion.