The bullish sentiment around Fantom has significantly increased as investors expect the Sonic upgrade.
Fantom (FTM) recorded an 11% surge in the past 24 hours and is trading at $0.56 at the time of writing. The asset’s market cap surpassed the $1.5 billion mark, making it the 48th-largest cryptocurrency.
FTM price, whale activity, RSI and social sentiment – Sept. 17 | Source: Santiment
The FTM price surge comes as investors show positive sentiment toward the platform’s upgrade to Sonic Labs.
According to its blog post, the transition was first announced on Aug. 1 and the Sonic testnet went live on Sept. 6. The new layer-1 network is said to be more scalable with a gateway to the Ethereum blockchain.
The S token is also scheduled to come out this year with a 1:1 ratio with the FTM token, per the announcement.
According to data provided by Santiment, the weighted sentiment around Fantom surged to levels not seen since March 2023, when the asset’s price rose from $0.31 to $0.52.
Meanwhile, the number of whale transactions consisting of at least $100,000 worth of FTM also climbed from 5 to 17 unique transactions per day since Sept. 14, per data from Santiment.
Higher whale activity usually boosts an asset’s price volatility. This could bring increased liquidations, leading to a price correction.
Data from the market intelligence platform shows that the FTM Relative Strength Index is currently sitting at 63, indicating that the asset is slightly overbought at this price point.
If the RSI surpasses the 75 mark, a price correction would be expected for FTM as the broader cryptocurrency market is witnessing increased volatility ahead of the U.S. Fed rate-cut decision.
Avalanche has announced a major network upgrade as the high-performance blockchain platform eyes further growth within the crypto ecosystem.
The Avalanche (AVAX) team revealed the upcoming launch of Avalanche9000, which they describe as the “largest network upgrade” since the blockchain platform’s mainnet debut in September 2020. According to a blog post, Avalanche9000 will soon be available in testnet.
Avalanche9000 testnet coming soon
Avalanche provides a highly scalable and flexible blockchain that allows developers to build and deploy decentralized applications on a fast and low-cost network.
Avalanche9000 🔺
The catalyst that unlocks an expansive world of purpose-built blockchains that all feel like one, giving builders a suite of out-of-the-box tools with complete customization controls.
The platform aims to create a multi-chain network that benefits from connected layer 1 chains, or subnets, to facilitate the scaling of the entire network.
Avalanche9000 is set to accelerate the deployment of Avalanche subnets by making it economically feasible for developers to launch these L1s. The upgrade will also introduce customizable chains, which will speed up projects’ time-to-market.
In addition to the Avalanche9000 testnet, Avalanche plans to release the necessary tools and documentation for users to launch their own L1s on the network. The upgrade will also include key network changes as outlined in various proposals, as well as developer incentives and partner launches.
What is an Avalanche subnet?
An Avalanche subnet is a chain or network with its own rules on membership, tokenomics, and execution layer. The subset of validators on the network work together to achieve consensus on one or more purpose-built chains. This structure allows Avalanche to offer a unified experience for users.
Some of the major Avalanche L1 launches include those by Deloitte, DeFi Kingdoms, Gunzilla Games, MapleStory, Shrapnel, and SK Planet.
Mantra, the popular cryptocurrency for Real World Asset tokenization, bounced back on Tuesday, Sep. 3 after hitting a crucial support level.
Mantra (OM) token price rose by 10% as it retested the important resistance point at $1 for the first time since Aug. 25. It has jumped by 15% from its lowest point on Monday. The token rose after the developer unveiled a new version of Mantra Zone, a platform that lets users earn rewards and explore on-chain activities.
For example, users can invest in the Ondo Finance’s (ONDO) USDY liquidity pool and share part of the 888,888 OM that will be rewarded. Data shows that the pool has attracted over $2.19 million in assets. The pool has an estimated APR of 576%
Mantra token also rose as the network’s staking yield continued rising. According to StakingRewards, Mantra has one of the highest yields in the crypto industry. Its staking reward rose to 21.17%, its highest point since Aug. 23, after bottoming at 20.9% in August. Its staking ratio also rose to almost 50%
In contrast, Ethereum (ETH) has a staking yield of 3.05% and a staking ratio of 28.40%, while Solana (SOL) has a yield of 6.87% and a ratio of 65.54%.
Mantra’s rebound happened even as sentiment in the crypto industry remained weak. Bitcoin (BTC) has remained below $60,000 while the valuation of all coins retreated to $2.07 trillion.
Its recovery occurred after falling to $0.8675, an important support level that coincided with the ascending trendline connecting the lowest swings since June 25. It was also along the 100-day exponential moving average and the 38.2% Fibonacci Retracement point.
Therefore, Mantra will likely continue rising as investors target the key resistance level at $1.090, its 23.6% retracement point. Conversely, a drop below the ascending trendline will point to more downside as bears target the first pivot support at $0.70.
A potential risk for Mantra is that more traders are still shorting the token. According to CoinGlass, 50.75% of all traders are shorting the token, higher than Monday’s 49.9%. Its futures open interest of $17.7 million was also significantly lower than the July high of $37.4 million.
Stacks, the biggest Bitcoin layer-2 network, will be in the spotlight this week as the rollout of the Nakamoto upgrade starts.
Stacks (STX) token was trading at $1.80 on Monday, Aug. 26, up by 68% from its lowest level in August.
The token will be in focus as developers begin rolling out the Nakamoto upgrade, the most significant event in the platform’s history.
According to a recent X post by the developers, this upgrade is expected to be a game-changer for the network. It will reduce the average transaction time from 10 minutes to just seconds, enabling new use cases such as minting liquid stacking tokens, depositing them into Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications, and borrowing against liquidity.
In conclusion, the Nakamoto upgrade will facilitate the:
• Interaction with DeFi apps in seconds • Implementation of DeFi strategies, which require fast blocks • Onboarding builders looking to build high-throughput use cases on Bitcoin.
The Nakamoto upgrade will also pave the way for the upcoming sBTC, an asset pegged 1:1 to Bitcoin (BTC). This will simplify the use of Bitcoin in DeFi, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and gaming, differentiating it from wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), which is entrusted to a single custodian. Unlike wBTC, sBTC will be decentralized, offering features like censorship resistance, cost efficiency, and high security.
Once the upgrade process is complete, developers anticipate that it will attract more creators in sectors like gaming and NFTs.
Stacks, the largest layer-2 network for Bitcoin, has attracted tens of developers like wallets, NFTs, and socialFi. Its DeFi ecosystem has accumulated over $100 million in assets, with StackingDAO, ALEX, Zest, and Bitflow being the biggest players in the ecosystem.
Layer-2 networks have grown substantially in the past few years. Arbitrum (ARB) has become the biggest player in the industry while networks like Base, Optimism, and Blast are seeing strong momentum.
The STX token has rebounded from this month’s low of $1.0638 to $1.80. In this rebound, it has moved above the 50-day moving average and flipped the upper side of the descending channel into a new support level.
Stacks has also moved slightly above the 61.8% retracement point. Therefore, the token may continue rising as bulls target the 50% retracement point at $2.11, 20% above the Aug. 26 level.
Intersect, the organization overseeing the Cardano blockchain’s development, issued an urgent call for decentralized application projects on the blockchain to hasten their preparations for Chang Upgrade #1.
According to an Aug. 17 statement by Intersect shared with crypto.news, more than 80% of stake pool operators on Cardano (ADA) have already moved to the latest validator node, 9.1.0. However, crypto exchanges and decentralized apps on the blockchain also need to upgrade to node 9.1.0 and report their progress.
In its statement, the organization said that the success of the upgrade depended on exchanges meeting a target of 85% liquidity on the new node.
The Chang upgrade is set to introduce on-chain governance to the Cardano ecosystem. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson previously highlighted the significance of the upgrade, describing it as a pivotal step toward establishing a “decentralized civilization” for millions of users.
As crypto.news previously reported, the Chang upgrade will usher in the Voltaire era, which is expected to move the network closer to a fully decentralized system.
The blockchain has already undergone several upgrade eras, each named after influential poets (i.e., Byron, Shelley, Goguen, and Basho). The upcoming Chang upgrade will allow holders of the ADA token to vote on protocol changes. Furthermore, the upgrade is expected to bring improvements to smart contracts, especially with the introduction of the PlutusV3 cryptographic primitive to secure data on the network.
So far, the Cardano token has not shown much reaction to Intersect’s exhortations. It is currently trading at $0.3345, a 0.8% improvement over the last 24 hours.
Cardano price chart, May 1-Aug. 17 | Source: crypto.news
Across 30 days, the current ADA price still reflects a 21% drop — a 24% improvement year to date.
At the end of July, ADA caught a break after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shelved allegations that ADA was an unregistered security, in its ongoing legal battle with Binance.
Cardano is preparing for the Chang hard fork, which will bring in the Voltaire era by introducing on-chain governance. The upgrade allows ADA holders to vote directly on key decisions, moving the platform closer to a fully decentralized blockchain ecosystem.
Table of Contents
A deep dive into Cardano’s development stages
Cardano’s development is divided into phases known as “eras,” named after influential poets, mathematicians, or computer scientists. Every era introduces new features through hard forks.
Byron: Launched Cardano’s foundational network, enabling ADA transactions.
Shelley: Transitioned the network to decentralization with community-driven block production.
Goguen: Introduced smart contracts and the capability to build decentralized applications.
Basho: Focused on optimizing scalability and interoperability.
Voltaire: Will introduce decentralized governance.
In addition to the main phases, eras often include multiple sub-eras, as seen with Goguen (e.g., Allegra, Mary, Alonzo), which bring more specific features. The Chang hard fork will be the first hard fork and sub-era of Voltaire.
What is the Chang hard fork?
The Chang hard fork allows (ADA) holders to vote on protocol changes and governance actions, with the option to delegate their voting power to designated representatives, known as DReps.
In addition to governance, Chang brings enhancements to Cardano’s smart contract platform through the introduction of PlutusV3. PlutusV3 includes new cryptographic primitives, which are used to secure data and transactions on the blockchain. For example, the new BLS12-381 and Keccak-256 cryptographic functions improve the security and efficiency of operations like zero-knowledge proofs and digital signatures, making them more reliable and faster.
Moreover, Chang adds bitwise primitives, which are tools that allow developers to perform low-level data manipulations within smart contracts. Bitwise primitives can optimize how contracts handle and store information, leading to faster execution and reduced costs for DApps. These improvements make it easier for developers to create more complex and efficient DApps on Cardano.
The upgrade will also refine how transaction fees are calculated for DApps by adjusting protocol parameters related to reference scripts. Reference scripts help reduce the size of transactions, thus lowering the cost for users and increasing the network’s capacity to handle more transactions simultaneously.
Node operators, particularly stake pool operators, need to upgrade to version 9.1 to support the new governance mechanisms and smart contract improvements. For the hard fork to take place successfully, 70% of the network’s stake pool operators must upgrade their nodes to version 9.1. The new version was released on July 25, and just 12 days later, more than one-third of the network is already running it. As of August 5, around 63.7% of operators are running version 8.0, 1.3% are still on version 9.0, and about 35% are using version 9.1.
What past hard forks reveal about ADA’s future
Source: TradingView
Historically, ADA’s price has shown a pattern of downturn following major Cardano upgrades, with one exception. The Allegra upgrade is the sole instance of significant price appreciation, with a 133% increase. This anomaly skews the overall average, creating a misleading impression of a 9.88% average price increase one month after upgrades. However, when the Allegra hard fork is removed from the dataset, the average price change reveals a decline of -14.74%.
Given the current market downturn, it remains difficult to predict the exact direction ADA will take after the Chang upgrade.
But if the historical trend holds, ADA could drop by around -15% in the month following the hard fork.
