Fantom price gains 70% in 30 days — What’s driving FTM?

FTM, the native token of the Fantom layer-1 smart contract platform, rose 5% in seven days to $0.6850 on Oct. 2. This is part of a rebound that began on Sept. 6 and has seen the price rise more than 71% over the last 30 days.

Let’s look at the factors behind FTM’s recent bullish momentum.

FTM price rallied ahead of the Sonic Upgrade and rebrand to S

The new Sonic chain 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. 

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. 

In line with these preparations, the Fantom Foundation rebranded Sonic Labs on Aug. 1. The change of the native token FTM to the new token ticker $S is expected to happen by the end of 2024.

The S token will differ from FTM in several aspects including initial community distribution through an airdrop, streamlined staking processes and new user incentive programs. 

In May, the Fantom community approved a proposal to migrate their FTM tokens to the S token at a 1:1 ratio during the migration to the Sonic chain.

Increased TVL and network activity

This increase in TVL is a sign of increasing user interaction with the blockchain as evidenced by an increasing number of daily active addresses. 

Data from market intelligence firm Gassnode reveals that DAAs on the Fantom blockchain increased 162% between Sept. 1 and Oct. 1.

This increase in TVL and network activity is a sign of increasing user interaction with the blockchain, which leads to growing demand for the FTM token. High demand is usually a precursor for substantial price growth.

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.