WAVES token more than doubled in value this week, after Binance said it would begin accepting the coin as collateral on its loans platform. The token is now trading at a three-month high of $20.5.
The token’s trading volumes jumped more than 200% this week, after Binance said it would accept the token. WAVES has outpaced the broader cryptocurrency market by a wide margin, with the latter trading about 7% up for the week, data from Coinmarketcap shows.
Binance also approved MATIC, SLP and THETA as collateral assets.
The token is a part of the WAVES Protocol, an open source blockchain project that allows adopters to build scalable apps. According to its website, the project has a market capitalization of $1.6 billion, and sees an average 38,000 daily transactions. There are 108 million tokens in circulation.
WAVES price rally underpins already growing optimism towards the crypto market, after Bitcoin and other major tokens staged a strong recovery off one-month lows. But said rally appears to have cooled now, with focus turning to Russia-Ukraine talks and a Federal Reserve meeting later this month.
WAVES 2.0 in focus
The project had recently announced an update, WAVES 2.0, that would increase interoperability with other networks, specifically through Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) support. This move would allow users to access digital assets on several mainstream networks.
To this end, WAVES recently announced an integration with with multi-chain hub Allbridge, which aims to connect WAVES with several EVM and non-EVM networks.
Our goal is to create a unique bridge between Waves and supported EVM as well as non-EVM chains, such as NEAR Protocol, Solana, and Terra.
-Allbridge
The project also established WAVES Labs, a Miami-based company that will aim at developing products for the U.S. market. Another main aspect of the update is the project’s plan to launch a $150 million fund to drive adoption in the United States, which it regards as a key market.
WAVES also outlined plans for its own metaverse with integrated games, which will be unveiled later this month.