STX – the native token of the Stacks network – has soared by a whopping 160% in the past seven days.
One possible reason behind the significant surge could be the connection between the asset and one of the recent trends in the cryptocurrency space – the Bitcoin NFTs through the Ordinals protocol.
The financial services platform – Matrixport – predicted that STX could rally even more in the near future. The primary reason is the rapidly increasing number of newly-minted ordinals.
STX Price Explodes 160% in a Week
STX – the native cryptocurrency of the Stacks network that brings smart contracts and decentralized apps to Bitcoin – has skyrocketed by nearly 160% in the last week and over 180% in the past month (according to CoinGecko data). It currently trades at approximately $0.87, a valuation last reached in May 2022.
The Stacks blockchain (formerly known as Blockstacks) is a layer 1 blockchain that uses the Proof-of-Transfer (PoX) consensus algorithm. It allows users to validate transactions by holding and staking bitcoin. Once BTC gets transferred, the user is able to mine Stacks blocks and earn STX tokens as a reward.
The network also enables digital asset ownership and is a necessary condition for people willing to trade ordinals on the Gamma marketplace. The venue offers a variety of bitcoin NFTs and is a social platform that brings together collectors and creators of such art. This is likely to be one of the main reasons for STX’s increase in price.
Some of the top collections on Gamma in the last month are BNS: Bitcoin Name System, Megapont Ape Club, Satoshibles, Bitcoin Birds, and Bitcoin Monkeys. The first comprises over 240,000 items, generating a trading volume of more than $750,000 at today’s prices.
The Ordinals Hype
The Ordinals Protocol has recently built on the utility of the Bitcoin network and gave birth to a massive trend. It allows developers to create and store digital artifacts directly on the BTC blockchain.
The newly minted ordinals per day surged from a few hundred in late January to over 20,000 on February 9. During the past few days, the figure has dropped below 10,000. However, there are currently over 150,000 inscriptions already, showcasing the quick growth of the sector.
Fees spend inscribing ordinals have also headed north, hitting over $150K a week ago.
A few days ago, someone traded their original CryptoPunk for an Ordinal Punk, triggering additional buzz in the community. Both collections had a floor price of over $100,000.
Coincidence or not, the price of the primary cryptocurrency has also gone into green territory ever since the ordinals entered the space. BTC now trades at around $24,000. Moreover, their emergence pushed the number of non-zero bitcoin addresses beyond 44 million for the first time in the protocol’s 14-year history.
Will Stacks (STX) Price Soar Further?
According to the Singaporean crypto investment firm, ordinals could turn STX into a “new multi-billion dollar token.” It described them as the “latest hype” in the industry, while the fact that they are minted directly on the Bitcoin blockchain offers “greater permanence and immutability on the distributed ledger.”
Unlike traditional non-fungible tokens, ordinals cannot be altered by smart contract developers, providing additional transparency and security.
Matrixport also outlined that the Stacks network allows users to lock up their STX tokens and earn rewards of up to 10% APY paid in BTC.
“With its ability to leverage the bitcoin blockchain’s security for settlement of transactions, Stacks is well-positioned to develop Bitcoin DeFi. As the full potential of the Stacks Network is recognized, it may fuel the STX token rally even further,” the company concluded.
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