Crypto market has settled, but these two altcoins are surging

The crypto market has had a tumultuous few weeks. But today, as things in crypto have settled and the price of most cryptocurrencies have remained relatively stable over the past two days, two altcoins are pumping like mad.

Dash, the 20th largest crypto by market cap, is currently up more than 22% on the day, trading for $57 per coin. It’s a far cry from where the crypto stood just this past February, when it was trading for $114. 

Still, the more than 20% jump is curious, with no clear answer for why the coin is performing the way it is. One possibility is the launch of the Dash v0.11 platform, which has received some enthusiasm from Dash supporters. The new platform “includes the ability to register public data contracts,” among other new features.

But the big winner today is Steem, which clocks in at 57 on the market cap rankings. Steem, the token that powers the Reddit-like Steemit web forum, is today trading for $0.18 per coin—a jump of close to 40% in one day.

The excitement behind Steem at the moment is likely tied to its upcoming hard fork, which seeks to wrest control away from Tron CEO Justin Sun, who recently acquired Steemit Inc., the company that developed the Steemit forum on the Steem blockchain.

As part of the acquisition, Sun got 20 percent of Steem’s total supply, which many members of the Steem community weren’t very happy about. They’re now looking to fork Steem and create an entirely new chain that renders Sun’s tokens useless.

And earlier today, the biggest crypto exchange in the world by volume appeared to voice its support for that plan: