Fantom (FTM) has been one of the best performing coins of 2023, posting a series of impressive gains in the past few weeks. After the market crash in late 2022, the FTM began trading the new year at a low of $0.2007, which is a 94.19% drop from its all-time high of $3.46.
However, with the entire crypto market trying to make a recovery, the FTM has been one token getting a lot of investor interest, with its price up over 136% since the start of 2023.
Phantom posts a 39% gain in seven days
According to data from CoinMarketCap, Fantom (FTM) has gained 38.77% in the past seven days alone, outperforming major cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), Ripple (XRP), and Bitcoin (BTC) itself.
While the FTM has been on an upward trend since the first week of the year, its price hike in the past week can be attributed to Fantom’s recent integration with the Axelar network. in january. 24, Phantom Foundation announce Partnership with Axelar, which will provide interchain connectivity to Fantom Network.
As of the time of writing, the FTM is trading at $0.4724, having gained 1.98% in the last 24 hours. Based on more data from CoinMarketCap, FTM’s daily trading volume is currently $240.7 million, while its total market capitalization is $1.312 billion.
FTM trades at $0.4790 | Source: FTMUSD chart from Tradingview.com
What does Axelar integration mean for Fantom users?
According to a blog post from Fantom, “The Axelar Network is a blockchain that connects blockchains, enabling global Web 3 interoperability.” Basically, Axelar acts as a medium for communication and transfer of value between several blockchains.
After integrating with the Axelar network, Fantom automatically becomes part of an ecosystem consisting of more than 30 different blockchains that are able to interact seamlessly with each other.
Using the Generic Message Passing Protocol (GMP), Fantom Network developers will be able to easily access smart calling tokens on any chain connected to Axelar. GMP will also allow dApps and users to send and receive data and function calls across multiple threads in the Axelar ecosystem.
Another benefit of Axelar’s integration with Fantom is the introduction of one-click cross-chain swaps on the platform’s largest decentralized exchange, SpookySwap. Using Squid, an Axelar-based protocol that redirects liquidity between chains, SpookySwap users will seamlessly swap tokens for different chains with a single click.
On each transaction, the Axelar network will process cross-chain gas transfers from the source chain token to the destination chain token, ensuring that users do not need to own crypto wallets on multiple chains or hold native tokens of other chains in exchange for gas fees,
However, other chains on the Axelar network other than Fantom include Arbitrum, Moonbeam, Polygon, Osmosis, etc.
Featured image: Zipmex, chart from Tradingview.com