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Crypto prices are experiencing what could be termed a roller coaster ride, with Bitcoin again hovering around $29,000 and Ether inching closer to $1,800. The Deribit Volatility Index for both majors is currently trading at “unprecedentedly low levels.”

The latest losses in the cryptocurrency market came amidst a series of developments, including MicroStrategy, which owns 0.7% of all Bitcoin supply, sharing its plan to raise as much as $750 million through share sales. The company intends to reinvest some of the proceeds into more Bitcoin and add to its stash of 152,300 BTC worth over $4.5 billion.

Meanwhile, the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance is reportedly in danger of facing federal criminal charges. The US Justice Department is considering fraud charges against Binance. However, concerns over the impact of charges on the platform has the DoJ torn between filing charges, which could lead to a run, or imposing a fine or a non-prosecution agreement.

On the macro front, Fitch Ratings downgraded the US long-term debt rating on fiscal concerns. The agency has downgraded the country’s sovereign credit grade by one level from AAA to AA+ based on “ballooning fiscal deficits and erosion of governance” that have caused several debt limit emergencies over the decades.

A recently published report by Grayscale noted that the crypto market’s recovery depends on the US economy and its ability to “soft landing,” which, in turn, is linked to the US central bank’s ability to reach its 2% inflation goal without a sharp rise in unemployment. But if the Federal Reserve makes further rate hikes or the economy stumbles, the report warns that it “could put a hold on the ongoing crypto recovery.”

However, it’s not all bad. One of the big catalysts for Bitcoin and, by extension crypto market is the upcoming halving in April 2024. Another major one is spot Bitcoin ETFs which offer increased accessibility.

Recently, ETF analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence raised their estimates from 50% to now 65% for the approval and launch of at least one spot Bitcoin ETF in the US this year, following a flurry of developments, including several major institutions, including Fidelity Valkyrie, WisdomTree, and BlackRock filing applications for a spot bitcoin ETF in recent months.

In the past, the SEC rejected all Bitcoin ETF applications, but now many experts feel there is a good chance that at least some of them could get approved, especially that of BlackRock, which has a success rate of 99.8% in ETF approval.

Contributing to this optimistic outlook is SEC Chairman Gary Gensler downplaying his role at the agency in a recent interview with Bloomberg, where he emphasized that there are four other commissioners. “The deflection seemed a change in the way he normally handles these topics,” wrote analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart in a note. “We believe this may be a signal that aspects of the anti-crypto stance are becoming politically untenable for Gensler.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appears to have granted approval for Bitcoin trading on Coinbase, thus reinforcing analysts’ view that if the regulator were to show any flexibility towards cryptocurrency ETFs, it would likely be in favor of Bitcoin ETFs.

Furthermore, the SEC’s ongoing lawsuit against crypto asset manager, Grayscale, could serve as another potential catalyst. If the SEC loses this case, as Bloomberg predicts, it could further influence the regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies.

“One caveat to our line of thinking is Gensler’s oft-stated disdain for the current makeup of crypto trading markets,” the analysts added.

XDC Token Rallies Hard

All these developments sent the market lower on Thursday, which has the total crypto market cap down by 1.4% to $2.1 trillion. However, some altcoins are still rising in value. Among the top 100 cryptos, XDC is one such digital asset that has surged to a level not seen since January 2022.

XDC’s price hit $0.845 on Thursday before giving back some of its gains. As of writing, XDC has been exchanging hands at $0.0719 while managing $35 mln in 24-hour trading volume, representing a whopping 53% increase from one day ago.

The price is still up 6.9% against USD in the past 24 hours, but even more impressive are gains against BTC and ETH, which were over 30% each before they got down to the current 8%. In the past week, XDC has recorded 35.4% gains while going up 153% in the past month.

At the beginning of 2023, XDC was trading under $0.025 and went on to almost double in value by about mid-April. Then over the next month and a half, the price of XDC dropped by 33.3%. Until mid-July, it continued to tighten its range only to break out when it was traded around $0.032 on July 16. Since then, the price has rallied about 160%.

The token’s price has surged 180% over the past year and 200% in 2023 so far, but it is still down about 62% from its $0.192 peak it hit in August 2021.

XDC is the native token of the XDC blockchain, and out of the total supply of 37.85 billion, only about 35% of it, valued at 13.85 billion, is circulating in the market.

The maximum token supply is set at 100 billion. Out of this, 25% is reserved for the founders and core team, 32.5% is allocated as incentives for user participation, 15% is designated for ecosystem development, 10% for pre-placement and subsequent token offerings, another 10% for hedge pools, 5% for philanthropic activities, and the final 2.5% is kept aside for a contingency fund.

The project was founded in 2017 by Atul Khekade, and it has raised a total of $50 million so far, as per Crunchbase.

As a utility token, XDC facilitates global and domestic trade by providing liquidity to the financial industry as well as supporting business efficiency through different sectors by offering non-tokenized and tokenized services. Utility tokens are created with small chains on the XDC01 protocol, with the likes of EURS, GBEX, CGO, LBT, SRX, and WXDC tokens being part of the XDC ecosystem.

The XDC Network, formerly known as XinFin, is a delegated proof of stake consensus network (XDPoS), which enables hybrid relay bridges, instant block finality, and interoperability with ISO 20022 financial messaging standards.

The network’s hybrid architecture allows it to combine public and private blockchain features with cross-chain smart contracts. Cross-chain transactions enable it to support institutional use in trade finance and tokenization. So, with interoperable smart contracts, fast settlement of trade transactions, and EVM compatibility, the XDC Network provides a scalable infrastructure for both enterprises and independent contributors.

Click here to learn all about investing in XDC Network (XDC).

XDC Network Growth

Amidst all this explosive price action, the total value locked (TVL) in the protocol also skyrocketed to $5.97 million, from $2.5 mln in mid-June and a mere $555k a year ago, according to data from DeFi Llama. The protocol currently is home to decentralized finance (DeFi) projects like XSwap protocol, Globiance, Fathom DEX, and IcecreamSwap. The growth of these DeFi solutions contributed to the rise in XDC price.

In addition to the TVL increase this week, XDC Network integrated with the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s (IMDA) TradeTrust, a digital utility that connects governments and businesses to a public blockchain.

TradeTrust aims to simplify cross-border trade by enabling interoperability and traceability across different trade formats and platforms, harmonizing the legal recognition of digital documents between various jurisdictions which have adopted Model Law on Electronic Trade Records (MLETR).

A new initiative called XDC Trade Network has also been launched to enable the creation and financing of MLETR-compliant digital trade documents.

To be headed by Sunil Senapati, who joined XDC as COO for trade and payments in September last year, XDC Trade Network is set up as a special purpose entity and is a suite of dApps built on the platform that enables users to issue digitally signed, verifiable trade documents, such as electronic bills of lading, as per the requirements laid out in MLETR.

This integration of TradeTrust into the XDC platform allows users to basically not just trace the source of these documents and verify their authenticity but also make the title transfer across different digital platforms.

“With the growing demands of blockchain globally, XDC Network as a partner of IMDA’s TradeTrust, is one of the solutions for trade finance. We will continue to work closely with industry partners to push the envelope in global digital trade,” said Loh Sin Yong, director of TradeTrust at the IMDA.

According to Senapati, this integration brings “the much-needed utility” to the industry. There has been a growing global legal acceptance of electronic trade documents, with Singapore adopting MLETR in 2021, which followed the first-ever cross-border digital trade financing pilot between two MLETR-compliant jurisdictions, which was carried out using the IMDA’s TradeTrust framework.

With MLETR gaining momentum, Senapati expects their solution to drive digitalization across trade participants, which would lower compliance costs, allow monitoring of logistics chains in real-time, ease access to capital for SMEs, and further help prevent documentary fraud.

“With so many nations actively working to push through the enabling regulatory frameworks, we feel our solution is very timely, and we can say cross-border trade is increasingly looking more digital,” said Senapati.

As XDC Trade Network gains traction, the company is excited to bring in non-bank liquidity providers, institutional investors, and alternative credit funds to participate in the trade finance market for which pilots are already underway, with a “fully functional” solution expected to go live next month.

Other factors aiding XDC’s price spikes include the introduction of Chain IDE and crypto enthusiast Elon Musk rebranding Twitter as X.

Late in July, several tokens with the letter X in their name or ticker saw an increase in their price. So, it’s entirely possible XDC was also the beneficiary of this unexpected attention that sent it to an 18-month high. The XDC token, however, was already on the rise before that, and the news may have just given it an added boost.

The network has also been broadening its market presence and signed a partnership with SBI VC Trade. In the last quarter, the project announced that it was added to the crypto exchange subsidiary of Tokyo-based financial holding company SBI which brings the XDC ecosystem to the Japanese market, described as “a crucial hub for international trade,” by founder Khekade.

Much like the XDC network, SBI has also been growing its presence in key crypto markets, including Singapore, where it received a license to operate. The trading firm also added XDC to its “Staking Service” last month.

Just a week ago, XDC further expanded its collaboration with SBI VC Trade to sponsor WebX 2023, which coincided with the token’s price increase. Users of the XDC network get to experience cutting-edge innovations and interact with influential personalities in the business.

Besides all this, the XDC network team has also launched subnets that come with their own security and resiliency. A subnet replicates the mainnet and carries all the prominent features of the XDC blockchain, including speed, security, and resiliency, in addition to customized configurations. Being a sovereign blockchain, it is owned by the customer while being protected by the mainnet but without infringing privacy.

Besides individual community customers, enterprise and institutional customers could also find utility in the subnet, as they might prefer “owning their own infrastructure in a private and isolated domain,” noted the team at the time. As of now, the subnet has nearly 11,500 commits on GitHub.

Concluding Thoughts

Overall, as we saw, the jump in XDC price hasn’t been a one-time affair. Instead, it has been going on for some time and coincides with several developments in the XDC ecosystem.

With continued improvements, the price of XDC can continue to rise further, reaching closer to its ATH. When the token is performing so well even during current turbulent times, it certainly demonstrates the potential to do even better when the bull market comes again, especially with XDC network developers working to enhance the network’s performance, functionality, and security.

Click here to learn all about buying XDC Network (XDC).