Fantom (FTM) has seen a remarkable price surge of 40% over the past month. The cryptocurrency reached $0.51 on September 16, marking a significant rebound since August 6. What is going on?
Data shows FTM climbed from $0.26 on August 5 to an intraday high of $0.53 on September 16. That's a whopping 103% increase.
This performance is striking when compared to major cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin dropped 4% in the same period, Ethereum fell by 12.6%. The total crypto market cap shrank by 2.5% to $2.02 trillion.
FTM's rally has made it one of the top gainers among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Crypto trader "Mister Crypto" attributes this to "a lot of development behind the scenes."
The upcoming Sonic upgrade is the biggest buzz, as it is set to supercharge Fantom's network performance. The upgrade introduces a new Fantom Virtual Machine, an optimized consensus mechanism, and improved storage.
Sonic's launch is planned for late 2024. It aims to boost transaction speed from 30 to over 2,000 per second. Finality time will drop to about one second, and that's a game-changer for the network.
The upgrade will also slash storage needs by up to 90%. This makes node operation cheaper and more accessible. But what's even more important it's fully compatible with existing Ethereum tools and contracts too.
Despite the price pump, Fantom's DeFi ecosystem is still in recovery mode. Total value locked (TVL) stands at $86.5 million, that's a far cry from its $7.93 billion peak in March 2022.
But there are signs of life, as TVL has grown 22% since August 8. Daily active addresses have jumped 67% this month, from 203 to 346.
Technically, FTM is flirting with a bullish pattern. It's trading just below the neckline of an inverse head-and-shoulders formation.
A breakout could target $0.81, a 56% upside from current levels.