Layer-2 (L2) options for the Ethereum (ETH) community have grown in prominence during the last 12 months as a result of of the necessity for scalable networks that provide low-fee transactions and led to quite a few initiatives that constructed cross-chain bridges with competing blockchain networks.
One mission that has benefitted from the expansion of the L2 scaling options is Synthetix (SNX), a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that permits the creation of artificial property and affords publicity to derivatives and futures buying and selling on the blockchain.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView reveals that since hitting a low of $4.44 on April 11, the worth of SNX rallied 52.6% to hit a each day excessive at $6.78 on April 26 earlier than a widespread market downturn dropped it again all the way down to $5.90.
While the bulk of the market is down, there are potential catalysts for SNX worth to see additional appreciation.
Launch on Optimism
One of the most important developments for the Synthetix protocol was its launch on Optimism, an L2 community that’s making waves this week, due to an airdrop announcement. SNX staking started on Jan. 16 and because the community grows, speculators are giddy on the prospect of future airdrops and staking incentives.
Most just lately, Synthetix used its launch on Optimism to get extra concerned in the “Curve Wars” and at present, it’s providing the very best bribe to get veCRV voters to incentivize voting for the sUSD Curve pool.
Synthetix has additionally partnered with Lyra Finance (LYRA) to supply 12,000 SNX and 50,000 LYRA per week as an added incentive for veCRV voters.
L2 airdrop season might be a catalyst for SNX
A second motive the worth of SNX has the potential to see additional appreciation is merchants’ expectation that an airdrop season for L2 protocols might happen.
There has been a major quantity of hypothesis that Optimism and Arbitrum, two of the most well-liked L2 networks in the crypto ecosystem, would ultimately airdrop their protocol tokens to early adopters of the networks.
This hypothesis grew to become actuality after Optimism launched the preliminary particulars of the Optimism Collective, a “large-scale experiment in digital democratic governance” that’s “built to drive rapid and sustainable growth of a decentralized ecosystem.”
Along with the launch of the Optimism Collective comes the launch of the OP governance token, of which 5% of the preliminary provide will likely be airdropped to early adopters. For those that didn’t qualify for the primary airdrop spherical, there may be nonetheless an opportunity to qualify for future airdrops by being lively on the community utilizing protocols like Synthetix.
With Synthetix providing futures buying and selling on Optimism, the protocol may benefit from customers searching for methods to be lively on the community and this might enhance demand for SNX.
On high of the potential to obtain an OP airdrop, SNX holers have additionally been lured to Optimism by the 81% staking rewards at present being supplied by the protocol.
Related: Optimism-based initiatives spike on rumors of token airdrop
Climbing consumer base and quantity transacted
Further proof of the rising recognition of Synthetix may be discovered in the platform’s metrics on Optimism, which have been steadily growing for the previous month, in response to information from Dune Analytics.
As proven in the graphic above, the quantity of distinctive merchants on the protocol has been climbing since launching futures buying and selling in mid-March and the protocol has dealt with almost $1.59 billion in complete quantity.
VORTECS™ information from Cointelegraph Markets Pro started to detect a bullish outlook for SNX on April 23, previous to the current worth rise.
The VORTECS™ Score, unique to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparability of historic and present market circumstances derived from a mixture of information factors together with market sentiment, buying and selling quantity, current worth actions and Twitter exercise.
As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for SNX climbed into the inexperienced zone and hit a excessive of 77 on April 23, round 39 hours earlier than the worth spiked 28% over the following day.
The views and opinions expressed listed here are solely these of the creator and don’t essentially mirror the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every funding and buying and selling transfer includes threat, you must conduct your individual analysis when making a call.
