- Stacks (STX) price broke out from a critical psychological barrier this weekend.
- The platform’s newest upgrade could be one of the reasons behind the price performance.
Since Bitcoin Ordinals took hype, investors are pouring new money into the Bitcoin-native Defi protocols, looking to play the Bitcoin ordinals narrative. One particular project is Stacks (STX), which, unsurprisingly, is also one of the top-performing tokens this year. However, despite attracting fresh funds, the token has struggled to break through key levels until now.
The main reason? A significant overhaul of the platform’s consensus protocol, helping bulls barge through resistance, establishing new highs for 2023.
Bulls Regain Control
After struggling to close above $1 since the start of this year, the bulls have regained control, helping Stacks (STX) break out from a key psychological barrier this weekend.
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Since Friday, March 17, Stacks (STX) recorded a massive price gain of 45% from $0.89 to this year’s high of $1.31 on Monday, March 21, according to CoinMarketCap. The weekend rally will mark a 500% price gain for Stacks (STX) since the start of this year, placing the protocol among the best-performing tokens of 2023.
The $1 price level has been a critical area of interest for bulls since the year started. Stacks (STX) first tested the key level on March 1. However, the bulls’ momentum fell short in bagging a daily close above the level. This led to a rejection and subsequent correction to $0.52 by March 10.
Source: CoinMarketCap
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Despite the setback, the bulls pushed the price to retest the $1 price level multiple times last week. However, the bulls’ efforts were rejected each time until the traditional market closed up shops on Friday, allowing the token price to surge by 60% over the weekend, closing multiple days over the key area.
The rally is likely in response to the Stacks 2.1 upgrade, which took place on March 20, 2023. Many blockchain networks often rally in anticipation of a major network overhaul. The recent rally is no different, as the new update could significantly impact Bitcoin.
Major Upgrade
The Stacks 2.1 upgrade introduces several improvements to the network, including optimizing its consensus protocol, introducing new functions, strengthening Bitcoin bridges, redefining mining, reducing Bitcoin network fees, and more.
Here’s a quick list of the improvements and new features:
- Improved Stacking by eliminating inefficient processes in PoX rewards and security mechanisms.
- Reduced Bitcoin transaction fees by 25% by adding support for Stacking to native segwit and taproot addresses.
- Upgraded Clarity contracts to better communicate with Bitcoin transactions and off-chain data.
- Optimized bridges to streamline functions.
- Lower barrier to entry for mining by introducing decentralized mining pools.
- Directly send Stacks assets to Bitcoin addresses via a special smart contract that recognizes Bitcoin transactions are contract calls.
Improvements to the stacking mechanism and the Bitcoin-native asset feature could be why the demand for Stacks (STX) has recently surged. At press time, the token price sits at $1.20 with a trading volume of $432 million.
On the Flipside
- Gamma.io, a leading Bitcoin NFT marketplace built on Stacks, recently released a trustless ordinals marketplace.
- Bitcoin also broke through the $28,000 over the weekend.
Why You Should Care
Bitcoin NFTs are on the verge of going through a similar boom as NFTs on Ethereum did in 2021. With inscriptions on the network crossing the 300,000 mark, the demand for Bitcoin NFTs continues to surge. Stacks is uniquely positioned to leverage the hype and attract investors’ funds. Like Polygon, Stacks adds another layer to Bitcoin and provides a lot of utility with its protocol.
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Read what Coinbase has planned for NFTs:
Coinbase Rolls Out Creator Hub to Make Creating NFTs Easy
