Layer 1 blockchain Fantom’s native token, FTM, has gained over 190% in four weeks, becoming the best-performing non-meme cryptocurrency among the top 100 digital assets by market value. FTM’s price surged to $1.16, the highest since April 2022, according to data tracked by CoinGecko. The token’s market capitalization jumped to $3.29 billion, becoming the 44th largest digital asset in the world. Fantom’s impending Sonic upgrade, expected to boost transaction processing speeds, may have galvanized investor interest in the cryptocurrency. The Sonic mainnet will replace the existing Opera mainnet in the next few months. Sonic’s testnet went live in October. The closed testnet with simulated traffic has demonstrated a maximum theoretical throughput of 2,000 transactions per second (TPS) and a time to finality of 1.1 seconds. Opera is processing just 3.2 TPS.

Bitcoin (BTC) tested $66,000 during the Asian trading hours on Friday, and market observers expect the leading cryptocurrency to face more volatility. The cryptocurrency has since retraced to around $64,800. “Bitcoin remains volatile with the drawdown of 10% we saw this week, with the recent catalyst being driven by spot bitcoin ETF outflows from GBTC of about 300mm on March 20,” Semir Gabeljic, director of capital formation at Pythagoras Investments, said in an email interview. “The drawdown still remains in line with the expected range of 10-20% as we’ve seen historically that happens right before the BTC halving event. More volatility is expected to come going into the BTC halving,” he continued. The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), a measure of the world’s most liquid digital assets, is down 0.5%.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Frax Finance released a singularity roadmap on Friday to boost the total dollar value of crypto assets locked in its layer-2 blockchain, Fraxtal, to $100 billion by the end of 2026. At the time of writing the total value locked (TVL) was $13.2 million, according to data tracked by DefiLama. The roadmap proposed launching 23 layer-3 blockchains within a year and new assets like frxNEAR, frxTIA and frxMETIS. The existing assets, FRAX, sFRAX, frxETH, and the new ones will be issued on Fraxtal going forward, the proposal floated by founder Sam Kazemian and other contributors added.

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Cryptocurrency markets suffered a sharp correction in the past week with the price of bitcoin (BTC) falling by over 15% before rebounding after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Wednesday. The sell-off may not be over as positioning still looks overbought, JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report Thursday.

“There remains considerable optimism in the market over the prospect for prices rising significantly by year-end, with a significant component of that optimism arising from a view that bitcoin demand via spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) would continue at the same pace even as the supply of bitcoin diminishes after the halving event,” analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote.

The quadrennial reward halving is when miners’ rewards are cut in half. The next halving is expected in mid-April.

- Omkar Godbole