THORChain (RUNE) Sparks Hopes for New Price Peak
THORChain (RUNE) turned into one of the significant gainers in the beginning of the new month. RUNE rallied to levels not seen since May, rising above $16.38.
Now, RUNE faces the challenge of repeating its peak price above $20.30, and showing its capabilities as one of the more promising alternatives to Ethereum. The upside potential to recover previous levels has been suggested by the coin’s price moves in the past week.
RUNE is also up around 30% in Satoshi terms in the past week, though still needing a run to recover the 0.00047 BTC peak from May. RUNE, despite its prominence, is also a relatively thinly traded asset, with daily volumes around $161M. Higher activity may give this token an additional upside.
RUNE remains highly volatile, as it erased more than 75% of its value since the May peak, sinking to a relative low of $4.20 before recovering.
THORChain Rides Crypto Gaming Trend
THORChain is focused on building infrastructure for the DeFi space, including a bridge between blockchains. The network also attempts to have its smart contracts audited, to avoid the repetition of previous exploits.
THORChain has been attacked for $13M in the summer of 2021, through an exploit of its bridge smart contract that accepted a faked token and swapped it for real assets.
Despite the setback, THORChain is becoming one of the networks to host crypto-based gaming. The connection of DeFi and gaming worlds produces play-to-earn opportunities, where gamers can achieve actual earnings in valuable crypto assets.
THORChain is just building up its distributed app ecosystem, also relying on its bridging capabilities with Binance Smart Chain.
THORChain Locked Value Grows
The value locked in the THORChain ecosystem is now close to $300M, with notable acceleration in the past month. The appreciation of RUNE may add to that number, as well as the robust performance of ETH and other collateral assets.
For now, RUNE runs behind more prominent chains like Solana (SOL) and Terra (LUNA). But the project may see rising demand, especially in the case of the bullish cycle continuing for altcoins and tokens.
RUNE Highly Centralized on Binance
The trading of RUNE is still highly dependent on Binance pairs, with various fiat and crypto assets. About 80% of all RUNE activity is still dependent on the centralized exchange, and as much as 50% depends on the RUNE/USDT pairing.
RUNE is also capable of being used across the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem, extending the reach of projects, games and reward opportunities.
RUNE is also building up its deposit and liquidity ecosystem through increased incentives for providing liquidity, with significant net inflows.
For now, decentralized RUNE trading is just a tiny addition to the overall activity.
Can RUNE Become a Top 10 Asset
RUNE is capable of displacing Aave (AAVE), one of the highly active DeFi protocols, if it adds another 40M to its market capitalization.
But becoming a top 10 asset is a more difficult task, hinging on more RUNE being locked and a new range of price discovery. A rough estimate for RUNE is that its price would need to be $129 right now, to displace Shiba Inu (SHIB) from its position.
The competition among projects remains complex, and THORChain is still a wild card. The platform sees significant developments and a growing community, potentially becoming one of the important additions in gamified DeFi, decentralized trading and bridging tokens.
Play-to-earn Boosts Crypto Assets
Play-to-earn assets are also adding value to cryptocurrency space. The ongoing popularity of Axie Infinity (AXS) boosted the market price above $135, and led to a local high above $160. Participation in the Axie Infinity ecosystem also requires to lock in value, with $300 to $600 in crypto deposits required to own characters and play.
The total value of play-to-earn tokens on CoinMarketCap is just gaining speed. Currently, the collection of gamified DeFi assets is worth above $20B, which is still a fraction of the total value within DeFi tokens.
Other tokens of interest that extend their value through digital real estate include Decentraland (MANA), which is also on an expansion spree.
MANA peaked at $4.16 on October 31, only to slide toward $2.65 in a few hours. The asset remains highly volatile, while still achieving high prices for its digital land plots.
RUNE is not listed yet as a play-to-earn token, and is counted among DeFi tokens, where it is the 46-th largest asset in terms of market capitalization. RUNE is yet another example of new token arrivals showing greater activity potential compared to traditional digital assets with few new developments.
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