The price of BNT, the native token of Bancor, surged 86% in merely two days from $1.02 to $1.919. The rally was fueled by a combination of Coinbase listing BNT and the growing volume of Bancor’s DEX.
The Coinbase listing was the primary catalyst behind BNT’s strong 48-hour rally. Almost immediately after its announcement, the token’s price increased by around 16% after spiking to as high as $3.70. Coinbase said on Dec. 16:
“Starting today, Coinbase supports Aave (AAVE), Bancor (BNT), and Synthetix (SNX) at Coinbase.com and in the Coinbase Android and iOS apps. Coinbase customers can now buy, sell, convert, send, receive, or store AAVE, BNT, and SNX.”
Although the surprise listing served as a short-term catalyst, BNT has been rallying since early November due to Bancor’s momentum.
What is Bancor and why is it surging?
Bancor can be described as a decentralized exchange (DEX) and an automated market maker (AMM). On the Bancor network, anyone can trade ERC 20 tokens and various crypto assets in a decentralized ecosystem.
With the resurgence of decentralized finance (DeFi), the daily volume and liquidity of Bancor have continuously increased.
On Nov. 19, Bancor said that the protocol achieved $60 million in total value locked. The team said:
“Bancor has crossed $60M in TVL! 1000s of LPs are now enjoying: single-sided AMM exposure; impermanent loss protection; BNT liquidity mining.”
According to data from CoinMarketCap, Bancor has processed $14 million in trades in the last 24 hours. For a decentralized on-chain liquidity protocol, a daily trading volume above $10 million is relatively high.
To compare, SushiSwap and Uniswap, the two largest DEXs on Ethereum, process $44 million and $275 million per day, respectively.
BTC breaking $20,000 will boost DeFi
Decentralized applications and DEXs within the DeFi space would have a larger room to grow if Bitcoin and Ethereum begin to rally in the short term.
Currently, both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) are consolidating under key resistance levels. But several market analysts expect to see new all-time highs soon amid several bullish signals.
Furthermore, Alex Krüger, an economist and trader, pinpointed the continued retest of $20,000 and the low futures funding rates as the likely catalysts to push Bitcoin beyond its record-high. He said:
“The more time $BTC spends below 20K and the lower the funding and futures basis as price approaches 20K, the stronger the upwards break once it comes. It will come.”
If Bitcoin and Ethereum rally, the demand for DeFi would naturally soar. Many DeFi users often put up cryptocurrencies, like Wrapped Bitcoin and Ethereum, as collateral to gain additional exposure to cryptocurrencies.
When the market enters a clear bull cycle, the demand for DeFi services would further increase as borrowing and trading volumes rise. Also, the risk of adding more collateral in Ethereum to secure margin drops when the Ether price is increasing.
As of Dec. 16, the total value locked across DeFi protocols is hovering just under $15 billion, its all-time high.