Stacks (STX) Crypto Has Surged 3792% In A Year — What Is Going On?

Stacks (STX), the token for the namesake open-source network that aims to add functionality to Bitcoin (BTC), has risen 3792.56% in about a year since it touched an all-time low of $0.045 in March 2020.

What Happened: STX traded 27.9% lower over 24 hours at $1.79 at press time and has risen 42.34% on a seven-day basis.

Comparatively, BTC fell 1.72% in a seven-day period and traded 0.83% lower over 24 hours at $58,424.10 at press time.

On Monday, STX almost doubled in value in less than 24-hours after it became available to trade on South Korea-based cryptocurrency exchange Upbit.

The United States trading in STX commenced on the OKCoin exchange in mid-January to coincide with the Stacks 2.0 upgrade, Jason Lau, Chief Operating Officer at OKCoin, told Benzinga.

Lau said that STX holders are becoming more comfortable with locking STX in order to earn BTC, a process known as Stacking.

“With bitcoin consistently charting new all time highs, the appeal of earning yield in BTC is alluring to many. Stackers have been earning up to 25% APY paid out in BTC over the past couple months, and the amount stacked has increased 3x since stacking went live.”

STX users have the option of locking up their STX for 1 cycle or 12 cycles. According to OKCoin data, 65% of users in cycle 5 chose to lock up their STX for 12 cycles, or roughly six months. 

Why It Matters: On South Korea and what’s going on there, Lau disclosed that due to capital controls local investors rely on their exchanges to access crypto. 

“Recently, crypto is back on the minds of Korean investors as evidenced by a 20% “kimchi premium” seen in bitcoin’s KRW price versus USD prices globally,” said Lau.

Korean government implemented new regulations on Mar. 25 that define cryptocurrencies as “virtual assets,” as per Lau.

Other than these factors, the “launch of a Stacks Korea chapter and community has also given additional local exposure to the growing STX ecosystem and stacking benefits,” said the OKCoin executive.

See also: HOW TO BUY STACKS (STX)

Photo: Courtesy of Stacks