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Stacks (STX) prices have skyrocketed more than 30% over the past few hours, reaching an all-time high of $3.65 before cooling off a little.
The token had climbed from an intraday low of $2.75 on March 20 but had retreated slightly to trade at $3.36 at the time of writing. Furthermore, the asset has made an impressive 125% since the beginning of this year.
Stacks enables developers to write smart contracts for the Bitcoin network and was popularized in 2023 during the Ordinal Inscriptions craze.
What Is Driving STX Momentum?
Momentum for the big price pump has come from the approval of a major upgrade to the Stacks protocol called Nakamoto.
On March 20, the Stacks Foundation announced that the upgrade had been approved following a community and governance vote with a resounding majority in favor.
Over 2,700 accounts voted for the Nakamoto release, a new milestone, it stated before adding that more than 150 million STX tokens from nearly 400 accounts voted in favor of the upgrade.
The @Stacks Nakamoto Upgrade: Approved 🟧
The community resoundingly votes “yes” for the Nakamoto upgrade. A huge win 🧡
– For voters with Stacked STX, every vote was cast in favor of the upgrade
– For non stackers, 99.98% voted in favor of the upgradeMore info below 🧵1/4 pic.twitter.com/qqeX4w9Y0s
— Stacks Foundation 🟧 (@StacksOrg) March 19, 2024
The Nakamoto testnet will go live on March 25th, with the mainnet activation expected in the last two weeks of May, it stated.
The upgrade will increase block times and network security, with transactions on Stacks becoming as irreversible as Bitcoin’s.
“The Bitcoin Economy will be ushered in by fast, affordable BTC transactions and full-featured smart contracts on the Stacks L2,” stated the official website.
On March 20, Stacks co-founder Muneeb Ali said around $200 million in BTC yields will go out to users this year at current levels.
“Stacks (STX) is the only digital asset with a native BTC yield.”
Stacks (STX) is the only digital asset with a native BTC yield.
Approx $200M in BTC yield will go out to users this year, at current levels.
As network usage grows & more users pay gas fees, the BTC yield increases.
BTC economy grows, BTC yield grows—a positive economic loop.
— muneeb.btc (@muneeb) March 20, 2024
Other Altcoins Outperforming
STX is not the only altcoin surging by double digits today. Ethereum prices had cranked 12% in a recovery, taking it back above $3,500, while Solana was up a similar amount, trading at $190 at the time of writing. THORChain (RUNE) was also up around 19% on the day to reach $8.73.
Meme coins were leading the way, however. There were also big gains for Dogecoin, trading up 20% at $0.15 while its sibling Shiba Inu made 11%. The FLOKI meme coin had jumped a whopping 42% on the day, while PEPE was up 22%.