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Fantom (FTM) Bull Run: 8% Price Surge And Robust Double-Digit Growth In Key Metrics

Fantom (FTM), a Layer-1 (L1) protocol, and its native token, FTM, have experienced significant gains and notable achievements in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024. 

According to a comprehensive performance analysis conducted by Messari, amid the emerging crypto bull market, Fantom has emerged as one of the major beneficiaries, showing significant growth in key metrics and market capitalization. 

FTM Market Cap Soars 101% QoQ

By the numbers, FTM’s circulating market capitalization saw a substantial 101% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) increase, jumping from $1.3 billion to $2.6 billion, vaulting it up ten spots to 48th among all tokens (currently 58th). The token’s rally extended for two consecutive quarters, resulting in a fourfold increase since the end of Q3 2023.

Fantom

Although Fantom experienced a decrease of 53% QoQ in revenue measured in FTM, amounting to 1.8 million FTM, revenue denominated in USD exhibited a 4% QoQ increase, reaching $1.2 million. 

According to Messari, the revenue decline was primarily due to reduced inscription activity across all smart contract platforms in Q1. 

Despite this, Fantom maintained an upward trend in average daily transactions, excluding inscription-related activity, surpassing the Q3 average and reaching 247,000 daily transactions. Daily active addresses also rebounded, rising by 24% QoQ to 40,500.

In Q1, the staking requirement for Fantom validators was significantly reduced from 500,000 FTM to 50,000 FTM, aiming to increase accessibility. However, the number of active validators remained unchanged at 55. 

Notably, the total amount of FTM staked increased by 17% QoQ, from 1.1 billion to 1.3 billion FTM, resulting in a 135% QoQ surge in the total dollar value of staked FTM, reaching $1.2 billion. Among proof-of-stake (PoS) networks, Fantom ranked 22nd in the dollar value of funds staked by the end of Q1.

Memecoin Mania Boosts Fantom On-Chain Activity

During the year’s first quarter, Total Value Locked (TVL) denominated in USD experienced a substantial 59% QoQ increase, rising from $810.8 million in Q4 to $1.28 billion. 

Conversely, TVL-denominated in FTM decreased by 21% QoQ, indicating that the surge in USD-denominated TVL was partly attributed to FTM’s price appreciation.

Fantom’s average daily decentralized exchange (DEX) volume surged by 64% QoQ, from $10.2 million to nearly $176.8 million. In Q1, the “Memecoin Mania” trend contributed to elevated on-chain activity across various networks, including Fantom.

Fantom

Fantom’s monthly DEX volume surpassed $1 billion in March, marking the first time since March 2023. The number of DEXs on Fantom increased to 31 by the end of Q1, with no single DEX dominating more than 30% of the market share.

Lastly, following an exploit in the Multichain: Fantom Bridge, which affected stablecoins on Fantom in Q3 2023, the Fantom Foundation took steps to increase the liquidity of stablecoins. 

As of Q1 2024, two independent third-party bridging solutions, Axelar (axlUSDC and axlUSDT) and LayerZero (lzUSDC and lzUSDT), have emerged. USDC remains the predominant stablecoin on Fantom, accounting for 98% of the stablecoin market cap. USDT also experienced considerable growth, with an 86% QoQ increase.

Fantom

The FTM token is currently trading at $0.7037, reflecting an 8.7% increase in price over the past seven days. However, it has experienced a decline of nearly 20% in the monthly time frame.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com

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Fantom Launches Recovery Plan For Funds Lost In Multichain’s $200M Exploit, FTM Soars

The Fantom (FTM) Foundation has taken decisive steps to recover assets lost in the Multichain exploit that devastated various chains, including its own, resulting in a staggering $210 million loss.

After failed attempts to engage with the Multichain Foundation, the Protocol has announced that it filed a lawsuit for “breach of contract” and “fraudulent misrepresentations.” 

Fantom Foundation Takes Legal Action Against Multichain

The exploit, which occurred in July 2023, targeted the Multichain bridge and affected multiple chains, including Fantom, Ethereum (ETH), Binance’s BNB, Cronos (CRO), Polygon (MATIC), Arbitrum (ARB), zkSync, Optimism (OP), and Moonbeam (GLMR). 

Fantom’s ecosystems suffered losses of approximately one-third of the total damage. In addition, the Fantom Foundation claims that the recovery process has faced numerous challenges due to legal complexities, jurisdictional issues, uncooperative former directors, and ongoing police investigations.

To pursue justice, the Fantom Foundation initiated several measures. They filed a police report in Singapore, where the Multichain Foundation is incorporated, and in Kunming, China, where Multichain and its founder are under investigation. 

Legal counsel was engaged in the United States, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore to navigate the diverse jurisdictions involved. Additionally, Fantom partnered with the blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs to conduct a comprehensive forensic analysis of the asset flow. As a decisive move, legal action against the Multichain Foundation for losses incurred by Fantom was commenced in Singapore.

Empowered To Liquidate Multichain

The Fantom Foundation has also disclosed that a recent default ruling by Judge Tan Boon Heng of the General Division of the High Court of Singapore has ruled in favor of the Protocol’s claim.

According to the foundation’s blog post, the ruling paves the way for the protocol to petition the court to dissolve the Multichain Foundation and appoint a court-appointed liquidator.

The liquidator, equipped with specialized expertise, legal powers, and authority to act on behalf of Multichain, will reportedly assist in the tracing, recovering, and distributing of missing or frozen assets.

However, it is worth noting that while the current ruling addresses explicitly the Fantom Foundation’s losses, it sets an important precedent for all affected users to pursue their claims against Multichain.

Ultimately, the Foundation intends to use this legal victory to facilitate the appointment of “suitably qualified” experts to recover and distribute assets on behalf of all creditors. This milestone marks a significant step forward in the ongoing legal saga and underscores the team’s approach to righting the wrongs caused by the exploit.

Riding The Bull Market

Despite the ongoing legal battle faced by the protocol, its native token, FTM, has experienced significant gains across all time frames, taking advantage of the current bullish sentiment in the overall market.

In the year-to-date period, the FTM token has recorded a remarkable increase of 67%, followed by gains of over 92% in the past thirty days. Furthermore, in the past seven and fourteen days alone, the token has seen gains of 50% and 57%, respectively.

Fantom

This continuous upward trend propelled FTM to reach a 20-month high of $0.751 on Monday. However, it has since retraced and is trading for $0.681, with a modest recovery of 1.8% in the past few hours.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com

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Q4 Triumph For Fantom (FTM): Circulating Market Cap Outpaces All Cryptos With 140% Surge

In the fourth quarter of 2023, the cryptocurrency market experienced a notable resurgence, accompanied by the anticipation of a potential Bitcoin ETF approval. Among the standout performers during this period was Fantom (FTM), a Layer-1 protocol launched in 2018. 

According to a recent report by Messari, Fantom witnessed significant growth, with its circulating market cap soaring by 140% quarter-over-quarter, from $0.5 billion to $1.3 billion.

This performance surpassed all cryptocurrencies’ overall market cap growth at 54% in Q4. Additionally, Fantom climbed up the market cap rankings, ascending five spots from 63 to 58 by the end of the quarter.

FTM’s Potential For Future Growth

The circulating supply of FTM remained relatively stable quarter-over-quarter, with changes in supply dynamics between Q4 2022 and Q1 2023. 

Notably, Fantom introduced the Ecosystem Vault and Gas Monetization program during Q4 2023, reducing the burn rate of transaction fees and reallocating a portion of fees to the Gas Monetization program and Ecosystem Vault. 

The number of daily active addresses on the Fantom network experienced a 27% decline quarter-over-quarter, averaging 32,700 in Q4’23. However, a steady increase in daily active addresses throughout December indicates potential future growth as the crypto market emerges from the bearish phase. 

Average daily transactions on Fantom reversed their declining trend, surging by 126% to 531,000. This increase was primarily attributed to the emergence of Fantom Inscription FRC20s, with November 25 marking an all-time high of 5.11 million transactions, including 4.99 million inscriptions. 

Fantom

In terms of new addresses, Q4’23 saw a 10% increase to an average of 21,100 daily new addresses. Messari suggests that the surge in daily new addresses can be attributed to the launch of Estfor Kingdom, a popular blockchain-based game on Fantom that gained traction in late Q3’23. December also witnessed an uptick in daily new addresses, likely influenced by improved market conditions.

Fantom DeFi Ecosystem 

Per the report, Fantom’s Total Value Locked (TVL) denominated in USD increased by 58% quarter-over-quarter, from $51 million in Q3 to $81 million in Q4. However, TVL denominated in FTM decreased by 29% in the same period, primarily due to asset price fluctuations. 

Q4’23 also witnessed shifts in the top DeFi applications on Fantom, with new entrants such as Equalizer Exchange, WigoSwap, and SpiritSwap gaining market share. Notable protocols by TVL included Spookyswap, Beethoven X, Equalizer Exchange, WigoSwap, Tomb Finance, and SpiritSwap. 

Fantom

These protocols collectively gained $29 million in TVL, accounting for nearly 100% of Fantom’s TVL growth in Q4. Equalizer and WigoSwap experienced the most significant market share increases.

The average daily decentralized exchange (DEX) volume on Fantom declined by 10% to $10.2 million in Q4 2023. Still, emerging new DEXs like Equalizer Exchange and WigoSwap contributed to the ecosystem’s overall growth.

In summary, Fantom’s performance was notable in the fourth quarter of 2023. The protocol experienced a surge in market cap, robust revenue growth, and an expanding DeFi ecosystem. However, its native token has declined significantly. 

Fantom

Despite the recent sharp correction across the cryptocurrency market, Fantom’s native token FTM has not been an exception. Presently, the token is trading at $0.3306, reflecting a decline of over 3% within the last 24 hours, 37% over the past 30 days, and a year-to-date decrease of 18%.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com

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Bullish Trend Ahead: Fantom (FTM) Rise Signals Potential For Powerful Rally Towards $0.65

Fantom (FTM) has recently displayed remarkable performance, surpassing several leading digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Binance Coin (BNB) among others. 

Over the past 24 hours, FTM has experienced a notable surge of 9%, propelling its price to the $0.4950 level. This upward momentum has sparked optimism within the market, with the potential to drive FTM towards its yearly high of $0.65.

Fantom Poised For Upward Surge?

Crypto analyst Ali Martinez has shared insights into the promising outlook for Fantom. Martinez emphasizes that FTM trading above the critical resistance level of $0.47 signifies a significant bullish turning point. 

Furthermore, the analyst notes that there are no major obstacles in sight until the $0.65 level. As long as FTM remains above this crucial level, Martinez predicts a strong rally for the token.

Fantom

With FTM’s breakthrough above the $0.47 resistance level, the stage is set for further gains. The absence of significant barriers until the $0.65 mark provides an encouraging backdrop for FTM’s potential upward trajectory. 

Analyst Ali Martinez’s assessment reinforces the belief that as long as FTM maintains its position above $0.47, investors should prepare for a robust rally in the token’s price.

Social Media Buzz Surrounding FTM

In recent weeks, Layer 1 (L1) blockchain protocols have taken center stage in the cryptocurrency community. Tokens such as Injective (INJ), Kaspa (KAS), Avalanche (AVAX), and Solana (SOL) have outperformed major cryptocurrencies. 

However, amid this L1 surge, Alpha Scan highlights that Fantom has emerged with impressive sentiment strength, capturing the attention of market participants and further bolstering the protocol’s native token price surge.

According to a recent post on X (formerly Twitter) by the sentiment analytics firm, an analysis of social media conversations reveals that a staggering 61% of all monthly mentions of FTM have occurred within the last seven days. 

Fantom

This sudden surge in mentions commenced on December 9th, indicating a heightened interest and positive sentiment surrounding the token.

Over the past 30 days, 28 key accounts have actively discussed FTM, further emphasizing its growing significance. 

Notably, 20 of these key accounts have specifically highlighted FTM within the last seven days, reflecting a heightened level of attention and engagement within a relatively short period. This ratio of key account engagement during the past week indicates a distinct rise in interest and potential market influence.

Annualized Increase Reinforces Positive Outlook

According to Token Terminal data, in addition to the social media buzz surrounding the protocol and its native token, Fantom’s market capitalization has reached approximately $1.38 billion, with a remarkable increase of 18.47%. This surge reflects the growing demand for FTM and its expanding market presence. 

In terms of revenue, the token has witnessed substantial growth, with a 30-day revenue increase of 734.11% to $171.73k. Moreover, the annualized revenue has surged to $2.09 million, representing a significant rise of 813.75%. 

Moreover, Fantom’s fully diluted market capitalization stands at around $1.57 billion, indicating a substantial increase of 43.39%. This growth further reinforces the market’s confidence in the protocol’s prospects. 

When considering performance ratios, the P/F ratio (fully diluted) is calculated at 203.80x, while the P/S ratio (fully diluted) is reported at 679.33x. Although both ratios have dipped by 82.8%, they still suggest a strong valuation for Fantom relative to its performance.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

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Fantom Foundation Wallets Drained, More Pain For FTM Holders As Prices Tank

Two Fantom Foundation wallets on Ethereum and the Fantom Network have fallen victim to a phishing attack, losing over $650,000, according to reports from CertiK, a blockchain security firm. Another report by “Spreakaway” on X alleges that one of Fantom’s team members also lost $3.4 million.

Fantom Foundation Falls Victim To Phishing Attack

Fantom Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the growth and development of the Fantom ecosystem. On the other hand, Fantom is a scalable, layer-1 blockchain that is compatible with Ethereum. Like the world’s most valuable network, the platform supports the deployment of smart contracts. For clarity, Fantom’s network was not hacked; the foundation’s wallets were compromised.

According to CertiK, the Fantom Foundation lost $470,000 on Fantom and at least $187,000 on Ethereum. Following the attack, Etherscan data show that the scammers consolidated funds into one account, holding at least $7 million of various coins. The address has already been marked and identified as a facilitator of multiple phishing campaigns impacting crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects. 

Fantom Foundation stolen funds| Source: Etherscan

Reports on Reddit show that Fantom Foundation fell victim to a “zero day” exploit on Chrome, a web browser, resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands worth of FTM. In a screenshot of a Telegram conversation said to have been shared by a Fantom admin, the foundation acknowledged that “some” of their wallets were “drained.” They are actively tracking the movement of stolen funds. 

Telegram communication| Source: Reddit

Zero Day Exploit, FTM Sinks Even Lower

 A zero-day exploit is a vulnerability unknown to the developer or its tech team, who might be able to fix it. Because the flaw isn’t known to the team, the threat actor can exploit it until it is patched. This is why zero-day exploits can be consequential, especially for DeFi protocols whose infrastructure relies on flawed software.

In the same screenshot shared on Reddit, a representative of Fantom Foundation said they didn’t update their browser to the latest version. The latest Chrome browser update, version 118.0.5993.70, was released on October 11.

FTM price on October 17| Source: FTMUSDT on Binance, TradingView

Following this news, FTM fell roughly 5% and is now rocking close to multi-month lows. If bears press on, the coin may drop below 2022 lows.

As such, it will reverse all gains made in the first half of 2023. At this year’s peaks, FTM prices rose to as high as $0.65 in February 2023 before contracting to spot rates. The coin is trading at approximately $0.17 and under intense selling pressure.

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This Rugged FTM-Based Protocol Sends A Warning About DeFi Projects

The safety of the DeFi and especially the FTM ecosystem is shaking as “Tomb Fork” projects seem to be the perfect place for scams to thrive. Even after some investigation, what might look like a safer project can still turn out to be a fraud.

Recently, PulseDAO got rugged. Allegedly, their own dev turned against the and KYC might not be enough to hold this person accountable.

Tomb Forks And Rug Pulls

As per Chainalysis data, in 2021 DeFi rug pulls took over $2.8 billion worth of crypto and accounted for 37% of all cryptocurrency scam revenue in the year, versus just 1% in 2020.

A risky model called Tomb Fork, often FTM-based, has become perfect for rug pulls and many investors keep falling in.

Pulse was a project that allowed users to “create their own prediction markets about anything.” They launched a token model with the promise of rewarding “all participants fairly, while also making the network resilient.”

PulseDAO was a Tomb Fork. Based on Tomb Finance, Tomb forks are algorithmic stablecoin projects that peg their token to another coin, originally FTM.

In the case of Tomb Finance, they intend to “create a mirrored, liquid asset that can be moved around and traded without restrictions.” 

The PulseDAO Rug

The rug was confirmed by Rugdoc.io, who had previously warned that the project had a risk of governance mishandling and they needed their contracts to be subjected to a full audit with a reputable auditor. They highlighted the following risk vectors:

  • Not KYC’d with RugDoc

  • No reputable audits as of date

  •  Liquidity is not locked with RugDoc

  • Not in a multisig. We highly recommend the project to use one with community members or reliable 3rd parties as an approver due to the said governance risk.

Then, they spotted that 4243 FTM was removed from the project by the contract owner here. It seems like they pulled out almost all of the project’s liquidity.

“It appears Tomb forks have inherent governance risks, which is why it is critical to have renounced contracts and KYC in place before entering.”

However, RugDoc missed that PulseDAO did KYC with ApeOClock, but it was not enough for safety, and this is a very important detail for investors to take into account. Is KYC enough? More on that below.

About 5 days ago, PulseDAO said via Discord they were having issues with their cross-chain bridge, but nothing more. After March 13, all accounts and websites were down or deleted.

There is not much information running around, but scraping screenshots of messages from the team, this is one of the excuses they gave:

But even Ape O’Clock, the platform they used for their KYC, was confused:

The team’s cited a person who was “poised to kill the project”, “DAOKing”. He is a YouTuber who apparently had made a deal with PulseDAO to review them in a video. This YouTuber claims they used him as a scapegoat and that he is actually one of their largest holders and got rugged as well.

He listed his wallet in a recent video and movements can be checked via FTMScan. Although he claims otherwise, some users say it is unclear if he owns other wallets. However, he seems to be actively collaborating with Ape O’Clock to investigate the pull and take action.

So far, it does appear like a dev rugged the whole project.

PulseDAO Telegram channel claims the following:

The team also said they are investigating the “attack” and fixing their website and will take responsibility.
They also claimed the reason they took their Discord channel and Twitter down was that they need “encouragement, support and optimism not FUD and disheartening comments” while they manage to restore services. 
Deciding to take down all main sources of information is a very odd choice when you want to take responsibility.

Moreover, the pattern of rug pulls points out an unsustainable model: Tomb Forks.
Some are quickly spotted as hard pulls, meaning that the devs coded the token with a malicious backdoor; some are soft pulls, meaning that the project gets dumped. 

An Archive of Rugged & Abandoned Projects by Ape O’Clock – March

Related Reading | A Race For The Truth: Fantom Vs. Rekt, What Went Down

Why KYC Didn’t Matter

Many investors check a safety box when a project has KYC, but the PulseDAO example shows its weak face.

Some of the reasons it might not do any difference are:

  • Recovering crypto thefts from some countries can be difficult or even impossible.
  • Authorities might not look into smaller crypto projects.
  • Scammers might not even be held accountable in several countries because the rug pull falls into grey areas.

A user pondered: “How do we expect DeFi as a whole to develop and grow if the is no safeguard in place?”

FTM Price

Fantom (FTM) has been trading around $1.08 in the daily chart, down 5.50% in the last 24 hours. The coin has experienced fear from investors because of the departure of main developers. The foundation has claimed this will not affect their plans.

Related Reading | Why Fantom Fell 22% Following Key Personnel Exit

FTM price in the daily chart | TradingView.com

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Yearn Finance (YFI) Down 13% Following Andre Conje’s Exit

Yearn Finance (YFI) has plunged rapidly following the surprise exit of its key players. The cryptocurrency which had been following the market trend had broken off the step with the rest of the space as the news sent ripples through the community. The plunge which occurred on Sunday came as a direct result of uncertainty spread across the community after Anton Nell announced that he, alongside Andre Conje, would be exiting the space.

Nell had taken to Twitter to post the shocking exit. According to him, he and Conje had been planning their exit for a while and would officially stop contributing to the crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) space.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Activity Soars Post SWIFT Ban On Russia, BTC At Do Or Die Spot?

Conje had played an important role throughout the existence of the Fantom blockchain. The developer had pioneered various important projects like Yearn Finance (YFI), Keep3r Network, Multichain, Chainlist, among others, all of which have been highly successful and very popular with crypto investors. With the move, Nell announced that they would eventually terminate around 25 apps and services that they currently offer on Fantom.

Nell provided further explanation for the move, explaining that “Unlike previous “building in defi sucks” rage quits, this is not a knee-jerk reaction to the hate received from releasing a project, but a decision that has been coming for a while now.”

Yearn Finance Takes The Hit

The impact of this decision was quickly felt across the space. Most notably was its impact on the prices of the protocols that these devs worked on. Yearn Finance which is arguably the most successful project of the lot quickly tumbled as news of the exit circulated.

In the early hours of Sunday, YFI dropped 13% from its spot above $20,000 to the low $17K. The drop in price was quick and sharp, responding to the news. A small recovery had followed that saw YFI crawl back up into the $18K price level but there has not been much uptick in the way of momentum, suggesting that the current downtrend might continue as the day unfolds.

Yearn Finance will continue to operate as always, just without the contributions of Conje or Nell going forward.

YFI plunges 13% following news of Conje’s exit | Source: YFIUSD on TradingView.com
Fantom Foundation Responds

Andre Conje’s exit from the crypto and decentralized finance space no doubt has some implications for a network like Fantom. Thus, the response from the Fantom Foundation was swift.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Falls Back To $38,000 As Russia Steps Up Bombardment Of Ukraine

The foundation acknowledged the role that Conje had played in the space and the influence he had but explained that it does not impact the development in any way. Fantom Foundation noted that Conje was not a core dev, so development will continue in his absence.

The team effort is what allowed Fantom to become one of the most utilized and loved decentralized networks in world.

Hundreds of developers build on Fantom daily and 100k+ unique address use Fantom every day.

Contrary to some popular belief, Andre wasn't a core dev at Fantom.

— Fantom Foundation (@FantomFDN) March 6, 2022

The network’s native token FTM had also taken a hit in its price following the news. FTM had seen its value crash from above $1.5 coming into the last lap of the weekend to $1.4 in a matter of hours. However, the token has held up nicely through the aftermath and continues to trend upwards.

Featured image from FX Empire, chart from TradingView.com