Bitcoin Cash surges 75% in three months, driven by whale activity and speculation

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has experienced a significant rally over the past three months, with its price surging by 75% to reach an eight-month high of $526.5 on July 1. This surge was driven by a combination of market enthusiasm, whale accumulation, and speculative inflows. However, the cryptocurrency has since retreated below $485, trading at $482.54 on July 5, down 0.23% over the past 24 hours.

The rally in BCH has been accompanied by a substantial increase in whale transactions. On July 4, analytics firm IntoTheBlock recorded a 122.45% surge in large whale transactions involving over $100,000 in BCH, totaling 957,440 tokens worth approximately $482 million. This sharp rise in high-value transfers echoed earlier activity spikes seen in February, May, and late June—all of which preceded major price movements.

Despite the increase in whale activity, on-chain fundamentals for BCH remain lackluster. Daily active BCH addresses have dropped to a six-year low, suggesting that the rally is being driven more by speculation than by increased network utility. However, technical indicators point to further upside potential. In late June, a golden cross formation appeared on BCH’s hourly chart—where the 50-day moving average crossed above the 200-day MA—a historically bullish signal.

Adding to the speculative momentum, open interest in BCH derivatives rose 27.4% this past week to $578 million. Analysts are watching the $478 to $508 range closely, viewing it as a key support zone that could stabilize the current pullback. The recent price movements in BCH have also raised intrigue, with a 10,000-BCH transaction worth roughly $5 million being flagged just prior to the historic movement of 80,000 dormant BTC — valued at over $8.5 billion. Experts suggest the BCH transfer may have served as a key test of wallet access before executing the massive Bitcoin transaction, which was the largest of its kind in over a decade.

Meanwhile, the Bitcoin Cash Foundation published its July 1 update highlighting the release of Knuth v0.68.0, which unifies the node’s codebase and lays the groundwork for future UTXO efficiency upgrades. While no major adoption headlines emerged this week, smaller community projects continue to explore BCH-based micropayments and NFTs. Roger Ver, a longtime proponent of Bitcoin Cash, remains publicly active in promoting BCH as a scalable alternative to bitcoin, though his recent advocacy has not been accompanied by any new institutional product launches.

In summary, the recent rally in Bitcoin Cash has been driven by heightened whale activity and bullish technical signals, despite weak on-chain usage and recent suspicious transactions. Traders are weighing speculation against these factors as they assess the future trajectory of BCH. The key support zone of $478 to $508 will be closely watched in the coming days as the market seeks to stabilize the current pullback.