Bitcoin rose to its highest level since May 2022, fueling optimism that the cryptocurrency could be moving out of its lengthy slump.

On Thursday morning, bitcoin rose to above $37,500. The increase marked a 7.25% increase from just five days ago, solid growth for the flagship digital asset, which has been having a much better year than last year.

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The cryptocurrency has increased about 36% in the past six months and has posted whopping 126% returns since the start of 2023.

Other cryptocurrencies were also up on Thursday. Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, rose as high as $1,943, its highest level since July. Ethereum has had 62% returns since the start of the year. Ripple is also up more than 100% since January 2023, and Solana has risen by more than 100% in the past six months alone.

“And, as we’ve seen, when bitcoin surges, ether and other altcoins tend to follow not long after,” said Darius Tabatabai, co-founder at decentralized exchange Vertex Protocol, according to CNBC. “Already, with bitcoin up over 120% year-to-date, we are seeing many other coins turning bullish, and trading volumes are picking back up.”

Putting pressure on bitcoin’s rise is optimism that the Securities and Exchange Commission will approve the first spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund. A dozen applicants have applied with the SEC to provide a spot ETF for the cryptocurrency.

The SEC is expected to announce approval sometime between Nov. 9 and Nov. 17. Bloomberg Intelligence analysts said in a Wednesday note that they expect the SEC to approve all 12 applications, which would likely cause bitcoin to rise even further.

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Still, it is worth noting that despite the increases of the past few days and weeks, bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies are way down from their peaks that were notched in November 2021.

Bitcoin topped out at a whopping $69,000. So, despite the gains, bitcoin is worth about 46% less than it was back then.