Fantom (FTM) price surges 40% in a month — What’s behind the momentum?

Fantom (FTM) price has risen 25% in seven days, to $0.51 on Sept. 16. This is part of a rebound that began on Aug. 6 and has seen the price rise more than 40% over the last 30 days.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows FTM rose from a low of $0.26 on Aug. 5, climbing as much as 103% to an intraday high of $0.53 on Sept. 16.

In comparison, Bitcoin (BTC) is down 4% over the last 30 days, while Ether (ETH) has dropped by 12.6% over the same period. The total crypto market capitalization has also gone down 2.5% over the last month, to $2.02 trillion. 

As such, FTM’s performance over the last 30 days has seen it become one of the biggest gainers among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap over a one-month period.

Commenting on the recent surge in FTM price, pseudonymous crypto trader and investor Mister Crypto attributed Fantom’s performance to “a lot of development behind the scenes.” 

Mister Crypto added,

“I believe it will eventually see a massive leg up. It might take some time, but I think it will happen eventually.”

Perhaps the most notable development on Fantom is the Sonic upgrade which is expected to significantly enhance the network’s performance by introducing a new Fantom Virtual Machine (FVM), optimized Lachesis consensus mechanism, and Carmen database storage. 

The launch of Sonic is scheduled for November or December 2024.

After this upgrade, the Fantom blockchain will be able to process over 2,000 transactions per second (TPS) with a finality time of roughly one second. This will be a substantial improvement from the current 30 TPS. 

The closed testnet with simulated traffic has demonstrated a maximum theoretical throughput of 2,000 transactions per second (TPS) with a time to finality of 729 milliseconds, marking a significant milestone in the development of the blockchain.

Sonic is also expected to reduce storage requirements by up to 90%, making node operation more cost-efficient and accessible. 

Fully compatible with existing Ethereum tools and contracts, Sonic is poised to support a wide range of high-frequency DApps without compromising security or decentralization.

The impending upgrade, however, is yet to revive investor interest in Fantom’s decentralized finance ecosystem.

Data from DefiLlama shows that the total value locked (TVL) in Fantom’s DeFi applications has dropped to $86.5 million, a mere shadow of its March 2022 peak of $7.93 billion.

However, there has been a slight interest in Fantom DApps as the TVL has increased by 22% since Aug. 8.

This is corroborated by data from Glassnode, which reveals that the number of daily active addresses (DAA) on the Fantom network has increased by 67% from 203 to 346 month-to-date.

Related: Crypto and commodities poised for massive rally, says market analyst

Fantom price sits on strong support 

FTM’s strong performance over the last 30 days can also be explained by the relatively robust underlying support. 

On-chain data from IntoTheBlock reveals that FTM sits on relatively strong support compared to the resistance it faces in the recovery path. The in/out of the money around price (IOMAP) chart below shows that 1,560 addresses previously bought approximately 242.56 million FTM tokens in the demand area between $0.47 and $0.48.

Increased buying from these investors is likely to keep FTM’s recovery momentum going in the short term. 

From a technical perspective, FTM is trading below the neckline of what appears to be an inverse head-and-shoulders (IHS) pattern.

The IHS pattern is a reversal technical setup that forms after an extended downtrend. It comprises of a head, a left shoulder and a right shoulder that are upside down and placed below a neckline.

A breakout and close above the neckline completes the setup, indicating that the downtrend has reversed.

The pattern typically resolves after the price rallies above the neckline, indicating that the downtrend has completely reversed. The FTM/USD chart below displays a similar technical bullish setup.

A daily candlestick close above the neckline at $0.53 would see FTM flip this level into support. If the price holds above the neckline, it would suggest the bulls’ ability to sustain higher levels. 

That will increase the odds of a break toward the pattern’s technical target at $0.81, which represents a 56% uptick from the current price.

The relative strength index was facing upward, and the price strength at 62 validated the dominance of the buyers in the market.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.