APT secured the top gainer spot on Oct. 22 amidst a surge in total value locked in the protocol.
Aptos (APT) was up 9% in the past 24 hours hitting a daily high of $11.13 when writing. Its market cap surpassed $5.7 billion with a daily trading volume of over $597 million.
The Price rally comes after the altcoin broke out of a tight trading range of $9.7 to $10.1 in which it was trading in the last 5 days. During the early trading hours on Oct. 22, a god candle formed on the APT chart that pushed its price from $10.10 to $11.12.
A couple of recent partnerships and developments helped fuel this rally.
Firstly, Aptos integrated with Echo Protocol, a decentralized finance platform on Oct. 21, which pushed the total value locked in Aptos to $150 million. The integration allows Echo protocol users to earn returns of up to 10% in APT, further enhancing the use cases of the altcoin.
Per data from DeFi Llama, Aptos’ TVL currently stands at its all-time high of $2.15 billion, making it the 7th largest blockchain in the DeFi industry, surpassing its competitor Sui (SUI) which stood with a TVL of $1.64 billion.
Moreover, Aptos also came under the spotlight after it announced a strategic partnership with crypto exchange MEXC. This collaboration will involve joint initiatives aimed at promoting APT through a series of events.
These developments have sparked renewed interest among traders. As per CoinGlass data, open interest in the futures market surged from $213.9 million to $274 million within the last 24 hours, marking a six-month high. Such a sharp rise suggests traders are expecting the rally to continue in the short term.
The community sentiment metric on CoinMarketCap also signaled a similar outlook, with the majority of traders claiming they were bullish.
Technical indicators signal more upside
On X, pseudonymous analyst AMCrypto observed that Aptos is forming a bullish flag pattern, supported by increasing TVL, a surge in daily active users, and smart money quietly accumulating the token. These factors, according to the analyst, signal strong fundamentals and technical momentum, positioning Aptos for a potential breakout to new all-time highs in Q4.
Based on the chart shared by the analyst, a breakout above the $10.50 resistance level would confirm the bull flag. At the time of writing, APT had already surpassed this level, priced at $10.96. As such, the APT could be rallying toward a short-term price target of around $12.50 as projected by AMCrypto.
On the 1D APT/USDT chart the 50-day moving average had crossed the 200-day Moving Average leading to the formation of a golden cross, a sign of a major trend reversal to the upside in technical analysis.
Moreover, the Relative Strength Index treaded above the neutral position since Sept. 18 suggesting a sustained interest from investors, supporting the overall bullish narrative.
As the bulls continue to maintain control, and with the recent golden cross signaling a longer-term uptrend, APT could push toward higher resistance levels, with the next target potentially around $11.08, marked by the upper Bollinger Band.
This article first appeared at crypto.news