beincrypto.com
Layer 1 blockchain network Avalanche is seeing increased momentum amid a deepening bear market. Moreover, Avalanche’s native AVAX token is defying the lethargic crypto market by notching up big gains over the past week or so.
While crypto markets are still in a stagnant state of lethargy, Avalanche is bucking the trend. As a result, AVAX prices have gained 13% over the past few days.
Avalanche’s AVAX Bucking the Trend
According to on-chain analytics provider Santiment, traders have become bullish on Avalanche. On October 6, it noted that AVAX was trending on its social media analysts platform.
Moreover, the surge in activity and sentiment on Avalanche is related to a decentralized Twitter-like SocialFi application called Stars Arena.
It allows users to buy shares and tip others on their posts and a lot of ETH is being bridged to the platform, it noted. Stars Arena is a fork of the Friend.tech platform that has also surged in popularity.
Stars Arena’s total value locked is just $1.48 million, according to DeFiLlama. However, it has surged 350% over the past three days as activity ramps up.
Santiment added that Avalanche could be seen as the next big gainer when markets pick up again:
“There is also speculation that AVAX could become the next $1,000 crypto following the success of SOL and DOT in the previous bull runs.”
Read more: How to Add Avalanche to MetaMask: A Step-by-Step Guide
However, Stars Arena came under attack on October 5 due to flaws in its smart contracts.
“Malicious actors were trying to spend $5 to drain $1 in TVL from our platform,” it stated. The platform also said that the exploit had been fixed.
Moreover, some reported that Stars Arena shares had already been stolen:
“1.1 million dollars are being drained right now because of noob devs who couldn’t make a copy of Friend.tech that will work properly,”
AVAX Price Outlook
SociaFi issues aside, AVAX has been one of the strongest-performing crypto assets this week. The token is up 3.5% on the day to trade at $10.36 at the time of writing.
Comparatively, crypto markets have declined this week, with the majors sinking back.
AVAX has gained an impressive 18% over the past fortnight but has dropped 50% since its 2023 high in mid-April.
Furthermore, the token remains down 93% from its November 2021 peak of $145.