Bitcoin Cash, Stacks, and Pepe Lead Alts Parade as Bitcoin Breaks Above $29,000

The rest of the market has caught the wave as Bitcoin today broke above $29,000—the first time since May—following a number of high-profile exchange-traded fund (ETF) filings in the States.

That means a couple of usually sleepy altcoins are surging.

Bitcoin Cash, a Bitcoin spin-off which has struggled to find a market since launching in 2017, is the third-best performing cryptocurrency in the past day: It's up 26% in 24 hours, trading for over $130, according to CoinGecko.

Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency, is only up by about 10% in the past day.

Bitcoin Cash's price surge might have something to do with it being one of the assets offered by EDX Markets—a new exchange backed by Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities which launched yesterday.

The exchange is aiming to draw in institutional clients by "bringing the best of traditional finance to cryptocurrency markets," in the words of its CEO Jamil Nazarali.

According to CoinGecko data, a third of the Bitcoin Cash trading is taking place on the world's biggest crypto exchange, Binance, with investors primarily executing their BCH trades with stablecoin Tether.

Other altcoins jumping in price include Stacks (STX), the native token powering the Bitcoin-adjacent Stacks blockchain, which is up more than 19%, trading for around $0.75.

And recent degen darling Pepe, a meme coin which launched in April and experienced an explosion in price, is also one of the best performing cryptocurrencies: It's up more than 18% in 24 hours.

The global cryptocurrency market cap today is $1.19 Trillion, a 6.5% increase in 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

Bitcoin surged past $30,000 per coin in April—the first time it had done so in 10 months. But it struggled to maintain its momentum as regulatory headwinds frightened away investors. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has hit a number of major crypto companies with lawsuits this year, including Binance and Coinbase.

But the asset is now fast closing in on the $30,000 mark again, and was trading for $29,473 at the time of writing.