IOTA Leads Crypto Market Gains with Rebased Upgrade Voting Initiated
On November 3, IOTA emerged as the top gainer among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap as developers kicked off the voting process for the highly anticipated Rebased upgrade.
The price of IOTA (IOTA) surged by 46% in the past 24 hours, reaching a six-month high of $0.504. This significant increase propelled its market cap above $1.7 billion. The altcoin’s monthly gains exceeded 350%, with a daily trading volume of over $705 million at the time of writing.
The recent price rally of IOTA was accompanied by a surge in futures open interest. CoinGlass reported that open interest in the futures market soared to a record high of $87.89 million, more than triple the previous week’s low of $26.27 million.
Reasons Behind IOTA’s Surge
The surge in IOTA’s price can be attributed to the initiation of voting for the Rebased protocol upgrade on the IOTA L1 mainnet.
[Governance]
#IOTA Rebased vote is now open!
https://t.co/5tby6mWFfb pic.twitter.com/O1PmSVt4mz
— IOTA (@iota) December 2, 2024
The Rebased upgrade represents the largest update in IOTA’s history, introducing several new features such as the ability to earn staking rewards, an initial target inflation rate of 6-7%, support for Move-based smart contracts, and complete decentralization of the IOTA ledger.
Furthermore, the Rebased upgrade is expected to lower transaction costs, implement an adaptive fee-burning mechanism, and introduce sponsored transactions to abstract transaction fees.
The voting process for the Rebased upgrade will span seven days, concluding on December 9, with the counting process lasting an additional seven days until December 16.
IOTA’s price surge coincides with a broader uptrend in the altcoin market, as indicated by the Altcoin Season Index reaching 81. This index suggests that many altcoins are outperforming Bitcoin, reflecting the prevailing bullish sentiment in the cryptocurrency market.
Future Price Predictions for IOTA
Following IOTA’s recent rally, analysts anticipate further gains for the altcoin.
According to Team LAMBO Charts, IOTA has broken out of a significant falling wedge pattern and surpassed a key resistance level at $0.40. They foresee a short-term surge to $0.70, followed by a rally towards $1, with a more optimistic mid-term target of $2.60, representing a 430% increase from the current price level.
Another market commentator noted that IOTA has broken out after two years of accumulation, predicting continued gains for the altcoin as whales redirect profits from other altcoins into IOTA. With a successful breach of the $1 level, he expects IOTA to climb to $3.50.
Potential Pullback and Resistance Levels
While IOTA has recently crossed both the 50-day and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages, forming a golden cross that suggests a potential uptrend, the Relative Strength Index and Stochastic Oscillator have reached overbought levels, indicating a likely pullback. A retracement to test support at $0.30 before resuming the upward movement is a possibility.
The next major resistance level for IOTA is at $1, a level the altcoin has previously struggled to breach in 2022. A successful breakout above this resistance could propel IOTA towards retesting its peak of $1.49 from December 2021.