What is driving the BCH rally as token reaches 17-month high against BTC?

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) finally showed altcoin season behaviors, rising to a 17-month peak against BTC. The coin climbed to a one-year peak near $640, performing its first near-vertical rally since April. 

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is attempting another comeback, as its market price rose close to $640. The recent one-year peak follows a general expansion trend, as BCH bounced from lows of $268 in March. 

BCH peaked at $644 briefly, revisiting a price position not seen since April 2024. Based on Santiment data, BCH may move opposite the crowd sentiment. In this case, BCH rallied despite months of negative sentiment from retail traders. BCH once again set up expectations for returning to four-digit prices, boosted by the active altcoin season. 

The recent BCH rally is happening quietly, with almost no specific attention for the platform. BCH is also rarely promoted by influencers, as in its recent past. However, the chain is still widely used for payments and transfers. For now, BCH manages to trade with higher highs. Unlike other altcoins, BCH has not seen any ETF or treasury announcements, for now trading based on bets for a bigger breakout. 

Is BCH gaining on BTC?

Since the launch of BCH, the periods where a “flippening” was viable were very brief. This brought a general consensus that BCH was destined to always lose value against BTC. 

In the past months, however, BCH managed to bounce off lows of 0.0044 BTC up to 0.0054 BTC. The rally accelerated in the past weeks, coinciding with a positive altcoin market signal. 

BCH has also abandoned its low range after bottoming out around $117, displaying its ability to make a comeback. This time, BCH will have to show it can overcome the bearish attitudes and break to a higher range. 

BCH open interest on derivative exchanges also jumped rapidly as of September 18, showing renewed market direction. Open interest recovered to $404M, though also showing an increase in short positions. Even in this scenario, BCH could go through a short squeeze. 

BCH traders face a sell wall

The recent rally has quickly turned into an opportunity to realize short-term gains. Trading data shows a sell wall, which can be overcome and push BCH higher. Selling volumes weighed the price down to $745.

On derivative markets, long positions are also posing a risk, as BCH may dip back to the $600 range to liquidate those traders. 

Traders remain cautious on BCH, as its previous breakouts have been short-lived. However, demand for liquid coins represented on exchanges is driving a return to old assets. Currently, BCH benefits from its representation on Binance, with over $359M in daily volumes. 

BCH still has around 25K daily active addresses, competing with other altcoins and tokens. Miners are also a source of support, as hashrate activity is close to its all-time peak. The BCH network is at around 6 EH/s, a fraction of BTC mining. However, with rising prices and easier mining, BCH is a reasonably profitable asset to mine. 

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