The Huobi token (HT) broke its year-long downtrend on Thursday, surging 25% to hit a five-month high of $2.95. This significant rise was accompanied by a sharp increase in trading volumes on the HTX exchange, peaking at $32 million, a substantial increase from last week’s trading volume of $2-5 million. The leading pair driving this surge was HT/USDT.

This surge is noteworthy considering the earlier sell-off pressure HT faced following allegations against Li Wei, brother of Huobi founder Li Lin. Wei was accused of acquiring tokens at no cost and then selling them for considerable profits. Despite these controversies and the lack of a clear catalyst for this price rise, market optimism seems to prevail.

The wider altcoin market appears to be buoyed by the potential approval of a spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This optimism is further boosted by Bitcoin trading at a 16-month high of $36,800. Since October 20, the non-Bitcoin cryptocurrency market cap has grown substantially from $505 billion to $631 billion.

Despite the recent surge, HT’s current price is still significantly below its all-time high of $34.8 recorded in 2021. The reasons behind this sudden price rise remain unexplained by Huobi advisor Justin Sun.