Forget Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, BNB And XRP—The Price Of This Small Cryptocurrency Is Quietly Soaring

The price of bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies have failed to make gains over the last month—though have made a strong start to October.

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The bitcoin price has treaded water since this time last month, while the ethereum price has lost almost 15%. Ethereum rivals cardano and Binance’s BNB—now the third and fourth biggest cryptocurrencies after huge rallies this year—have lost 25% and 12% respectively since early September.

As the price of bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies flatlines, OMG, the native token of the ethereum-scaling OMG network, has soared to highs not seen since early 2018—up almost 150% since early September.

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The OMG price surged along with the wider bitcoin and crypto market earlier this year, peaking at just over $13 as it was listed on major U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase. It subsequently crashed to around $3 but has surged back in recent months, climbing to over $18 last night.

“OMG’s rise seems to be on investor excitement in [layer-twos] and on the announcement of the mainnet launch of boba network, [a layer-two] optimistic rollup, as OMG token holders are eligible for an upcoming airdrop of the boba governance token,” Martin Gaspar, a research analyst at digital currency platform CrossTower, told Coindesk.

In June, OMG rebranded as part of its layer-two pivot toward layer-two and has teamed up with the enya and boba networks, planning on reducing ethereum’s eye-watering gas fees, improving transaction speeds and expanding its smart contract functionality.

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Other ethereum-focused layer-two projects have also seen a surge in interest in recent weeks, though polygon’s soaring number of active addresses has failed to so far result in a price rise for its matic coin.

“Adoption rates for ethereum layer two solutions continue to rise, as the number of polygon’s active daily addresses flipped ethereum’s for the first time last week,” Marcus Sotiriou, a trader at the U.K.-based digital asset broker GlobalBlock, wrote in a note.

“Data form Etherscan shows that the number of active addresses on polygon has grown by 168% in the past 30 days, while ethereum’s count has gone up by a measly 0.6%. This surge in adoption is mainly down to NFTs and gaming and may result in an increase in price for the native token, matic, in the short term.”