It’s hard to argue that the crypto market is not currently in a bull market, but this run shows different characteristics and catalysts than the 2017 bull market.
In 2017, investors were thrilled with the appeal of high returns from initial coin offering (ICO) that made a lot of promise but delivered very little in the form of an actual working “product”.
Fast forward to 2020, and the current altcoin season has mostly been focused on lending, liquidity, and income farming. The growing interest in decentralized financing (DeFi) was sparked by the four-digit APYs generated by staking assets, as well as decentralized access to legacy assets via synthetic tokens. In addition, pure speculation about buying and staking non-fungible tokens is driving the entire crypto market capitalization to new highs.
Some blockchains offer delegated staking, and while staking and node validation offer lucrative rewards for operators, deploying a node may not be a challenge for the average user. Setting up developer nodes can take some time, even for experienced users.
The Ankr protocol allows easy access to multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Polkadot, and Binance Smart Chain. By offering a cloud solution, users can deploy stakeout nodes and developer nodes in minutes instead of buying, setting up, and maintaining expensive setups themselves.
As of February, ANKR had a market cap of $ 170 million and was trading in a relatively flat range. However, the latest rally of 137% started when the project became the validator of the Binance Smart Chain.
ANKR token price at Binance. Source: TradingView
When the token hit an all-time high of $ 0.06 on March 12, its market cap topped $ 400 million.
Ankr’s one-click solution also offers nodes for Eth2, Avalanche, Bitcoin, Celo, Cosmos, Decred, Matic, Qtum, Tezos and many other blockchain networks. In addition, Ankr will handle Eth2 staking with just 0.5 ether, and the project provides instant liquidity through the issuance of a synthetic asset called aETH.
ANKR is the native governance token of the Ankr staking platforms and also serves as a payment method for services such as node provisioning and app usage.
aETH is gaining traction
The use cases for aETH have been expanded after several successful collaborations with SushiSwap, Curve Finance and Yearn Finance. These partnerships contribute to the token’s liquidity and earnings optimization. Anker’s synthetic assets are also used in OnX Finance’s farming and loan offerings.
Recent developments include a listing on the HitBTC exchange on March 7th. On March 11th, the protocol reached number one as a Binance Smart Chain Validator.
On March 12th, Binance Chain’s JulSwap DEX also announced a partnership with Ankr.
ANKR ERC-20 transmissions (left) and addresses (right). Source: etherscan.io
Ankr’s new partnerships and track record in delivering promised products are very favorable to the project, but the ERC-20 token’s activities in the chain have not increased much. On average, fewer than 250 addresses were active per day.
ANKR BEP-20 transmissions (left) and addresses (right). Source: bscan.com
On the other hand, ANKR tokens were increasingly used in the Binance Smart Chain network. This shows that the project has gained relevance as a validator and that the synthetic aETH token continues to be used increasingly in its DEX ecosystem.
VORTECS ™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro also identified an optimistic outlook for Ankr on March 5th, prior to the recent price hike.
The VORTECS ™ score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points, including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.
VORTECS ™ Score (green) vs. ANKR price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro
As can be seen in the graph above, the VORTECS ™ value began to turn green on March 5th and peaked at 75 on March 6th, about twelve hours before the ANKR price rallied 20% over two days to 0, 04 USD initiated.
The competition is fierce, but Ankr has an advantage
Although Ankr has promising prospects, there are several competitors such as Stakin, Stake.Fish, Stake Capital and Staking Facilities operating in the same sector. Achieving number one as a Binance Smart Chain Validator still gives Ankr credibility and leverage.
Investors should watch closely as the synthetic asset aETH grows in size and integration into its equity, DEX, and income farming solutions. Overall, Ankr appears to be in an excellent position to enter this fast growing market.
The views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading step is associated with risks. You should do your own research when making a decision.
