The 211th-ranked crypto asset by market capitalization surged more than 360% in price at one point in the past week.
The little-known Bitcoin Standard Hashrate Token (BTCST) skyrocketed from a weekly low of $16.06 to a high of $75.23 at one point last Thursday, an increase of 368.43%.
The crypto asset has since plunged back down to $44.56 at time of writing, a decrease of more than 40.7% from the high, according to CoinGecko.
BTCST is a token collateralized by standardized Bitcoin mining power. The project aims to make a market and increase liquidity for Bitcoin mining, allowing traders and investors to make gains on Bitcoin mining while eliminating the need to purchase expensive BTC mining equipment.
Per the token’s whitepaper,
“By standardizing and tokenizing mining power into BTCST and listing the token for exchange trading, we can bring exchange-grade liquidity to the mining power market while meeting traders’ need for mining exposure.”
Staking a BTCST token on-chain also enables holders to earn Bitcoin mining rewards. According to the project’s website, the total value locked in BTCST stands at $237.23 million distributed across 10,933 addresses.
Bitcoin’s hash rate has recovered since China implemented sweeping restrictions on Bitcoin miners in late June, according to Blockchain.com. The hash rate measures the processing power of the Bitcoin network.
BTCST’s price surge also comes as Bitcoin’s price has marched steadily upwards this week. BTC is trading at $57,430.10 at time of writing, up nearly 19% in the past seven days, according to CoinGecko.
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