Bitcoin slips under $86,000 as BCH jumps 28% on CME futures

Bitcoin was trading around $85,800, down under 1% over 24 hours, after matching Monday's intraday high near $87,300 and meeting selling into that level.

The action sat in altcoins. Bitcoin Cash jumped 28% to nearly $349 over the same window, the largest move among sizeable tokens, after CME Group said on Monday it will list Bitcoin Cash and Uniswap futures from Oct. 19.

What CME's listing changes

Futures on a regulated US exchange give funds a way to take a position without holding the coin, which matters for institutions whose mandates bar them from custodying crypto directly. It also gives market makers a hedging venue, which usually tightens spot pricing.

ZEC rose 9% to just above $1,646 and XRP 3% to nearly $1.59 over the same window. TRX fell 2%.

BCH levels

Bitcoin Cash has only climbed back to levels last seen in the second half of May, after reversing near $660 in early January and falling to $190. A continued bid would put $450 in range, where buyers were active between October 2025 and this May.

Money moves into altcoins

Alex Kuptsikevich, senior analyst at FxPro, described the move as a temporary shift of speculative capital from bitcoin into altcoins. He said many investors had parked crypto-allocated capital in bitcoin, the most liquid asset class, and are now seeking more profitable opportunities. Past BTC pullbacks of this kind, he added, have slowed the trend without reversing it, with dips attracting buyers who had previously kept capital on the sidelines.