XRD, the native token of the Radix network, looks set to end the month in great form, having recorded an impressive 14.2% price surge in the past week. According to data from CoinGecko, the cryptocurrency is the 46th-largest token, with a current market cap of $1.1 billion.
Meanwhile, blue-chip cryptocurrencies BTC and ETH have also gained 5.2% and 1.5%, respectively, in the last seven days.
Radix Up By 167% In 30-Day Price Rally
The past week’s headlines were dominated by the First Republic Bank’s ongoing crisis and the anticipated return of Bitcoin’s price to 30k. As a result, the market performance of most altcoins, including Radix, has largely gone under the radar.
CoinGecko data reveals that RDX is one of the best-performing tokens in the last seven days. Interestingly, a broader look at the market shows that this bullish run stretches as far back as a month.
In the past 30 days, XRD has rallied a staggering 167% price increase, reaching a 12-month high of $0.15 level during the period. This price upswing came with a boost in market capitalization, enabling Radix to break into the top 50 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.
As of this writing, XRD is valued at $0.111545, tallying a 5.1% price jump in the past 24 hours. However, it is worth noting that the coin’s trading volume slipped by 16.40% in the same period, indicating a recent dip in market activity.
Milestone Radix Upgrade, Babylon, To Launch In July
It appears that the recent price rally of Radix is connected to the impending upgrade slated for July. According to Markus Thielen, head of research and strategy at Matrixport, Radix’s March fundraiser and the highly-anticipated upgrade seem to have heightened interest in the XRD token.
Price action reveals that the XRD gained more than 15% on March 23, the day the fundraiser was announced. A week after, the coin would experience a remarkable price surge in the wake of the Release Candidate network (RCNet) rollout.
That said, the mainnet, codenamed Babylon, is scheduled to launch on 31st July and introduce smart-contract functionality to the decentralized Radix network. Babylon will enable developers to build robust and excellent decentralized applications.
“The Radix Public Network upgrade from Olympia to Babylon will occur on or about July 31st, 2023, paving the way for global Web3 and DeFi to finally exit the ‘tech demo’ stage with a mainstream-capable user and developer experience,” Radix stated in its official announcement.
Furthermore, this upgrade will natively facilitate the liquid staking of XRD tokens through the issuance of Liquid Stake Unit tokens. Ultimately, this means that there won’t be a need for other equivalent staking protocols, such as Lido.
