Decentralized finance (DeFi) has reshaped the face of the cryptocurrency market over the past year, attracting the attention of both institutional investors and retail traders alike as the traditional financial sector continues to warm up to blockchain technology.
While the majority of the largest DeFi protocols that have a significant amount of volume and value locked in the platform operate on the Ethereum network, high fees and slower transaction times have allowed projects like Serum, a decentralized exchange (DEX) that operates on the Solana blockchain, to rise in popularity and gain market share.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that the price of Serum's SRM token has rocketed 127% higher over the past two days, from a low of $5 on April 24 to a new all-time high at $11.47 on April 26, thanks to a record $1.621 billion in 24-hour trading volume.
Solana network gains traction
A major factor in the growth of Serum is the rising prominence of the Solana blockchain, which also saw its price surge to a new record high on April 26 as new users and projects continue to explore what the network has to offer.
The recent surge in the price of SRM is in part due to the growing number of front-end user interfaces like Bonfida and Raydium that offer access to Serum's trading books. This has helped to boost the overall activity on the DEX and has lifted its token value in the eyes of investors.
Bonfida and Raydium have been so successful that they actually led to the depreciation of the original swap user interface developed by the Serum team and are quickly becoming the interfaces of choice for the Solana community, with Bonfida experiencing a surge in unique visitors and API requests over the past 24 hours.
Serum also offers tokenholders the ability to stake their tokens to earn a yield from trading fees on the platform, and the token also has a buy-and-burn mechanism that further helps reduce the circulating supply to help increase token value.
VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for SRM on April 24, prior to the recent price rise.
The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.
As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for Serum rapidly rose from a low of 49 on April 23 to a high of 69 on April 24, just two hours before the price began to rally 130% over the next two days.
With decentralized finance still in its infancy and big money players only now dipping their toes into the cryptocurrency sector, networks like Solana and DEXs like Serum look to be the next generation protocols that help bring blockchain technology to the masses and usher in a new wave of growth for the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and you should conduct your own research when making a decision.