Over the past three months the NEXO token, the native asset of Nexo’s blockchain-based lending platform, has increased by more than 480%. Since Bitcoin (BTC) traded for $ 10,000, NEXO’s price has closely tracked BTC’s but performance is slightly lacking compared to the 1000% rallies seen from a handful of DeFi tokens.
The project was initially unveiled by the European FinTech Group’s Credissimo in late 2017 and claimed it would offer “the world’s first instant crypto loans with crypto support.”
Founded by employees Cresissimo, Antoni Trenchev, Georgi Shulev and Kosta Kantchev, the platform’s original purpose was to give crypto investors a way to borrow against the value of their crypto assets rather than sell their assets and create a taxable event.
Nexo originally planned to launch a public presale and main ticket sale, but those plans were canceled due to an extremely high demand of its private sales to investors.
NEXO followed a trajectory similar to most of the projects launched in late 2017 and early 2018 as the Bitcoin hype cycle was developing. The ticket value increased from about $ 0.10 when it first hit exchanges to over $ 0.40 in May 2018 before the reality of the crypto winter set and Nexo’s price dropped to as low as $ 0.045 by September 2018.
Innovation seems to be driving Nexo’s pricing action
In late October, as Bitcoin is preparing to break out of the $ 10,000 to $ 12,000 range, Nexo launched its ‘Nexonomics’ initiative to help drive adoption of its ticket and platform. The idea was to gradually introduce upgrades and new features to the platform through the end of 2020 to help drive the symbolism and promote the usability of the ticket.
The team also introduced its “Earn in NEXO” program which allows consumers to earn an additional 2% APY should they choose to pay all interest earned at NEXO.
Since the launch of Nexonomics, NEXO’s price has seen an increase of more than 480% with its market capitalization increasing from $ 68 million to its current value of $ 383 million over a three-month period.
During that time Nexo has also seen a significant increase in trading volume, rising from an average daily trading volume of about $ 5 million to its current volume of more than $ 30 million.
Nexo and DeFi tokens look to ride the Bitcoin wave higher
As the crypto market enters the final weeks of 2020 with Bitcoin always reaching new highs, Nexo looks well placed to hold on to recent gains and potentially go higher if there is renewed interest in platforms DeFi.
In the past 6 months, a number of large organizations have opened sizable Bitcoin positions and the FOMO around crypto could lead to projects like Nexo getting extra attention due to the niche they fill and the reliable interest they its offer on deposits.
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