fUSD stablecoin launch and rumors of Cronje’s return send Fantom (FTM) price higher

After a strong 2,000% rally in early 2021, Fantom (FTM) price collapsed alongside multiple altcoins and even though the blockchain has impressive capability, it has yet to find mass adoption due to the lack of a compelling use case. FTM price hit an all-time high at $3.46, only to collapse to its pre-bull maket lows under $0.25 after the failure of the Solidly DeFi project and the departure of developer Andre Cronje.  
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since dropping to $0.238, FTM has rallied 119.23% to $0.5216 on May 23.

Three reasons for the uptrend in FTM price include the launch of the first native stablecoin on the Fantom network, new protocol upgrades and partnership announcements that bring new functionality to the network and speculation that Andre Cronje is working with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols on Fantom.
Fantom launches its first native stablecoin
The most notable development to occur in the Fantom ecosystem in the past few weeks was the release of fUSD, the first native stablecoin on the network.
The launch of fUSD comes on the heels of the collapse of TerraUSD and looks to capture some of the capital flight from algorithmic stablecoina by offering a over-collateralized alternative.
On May 20, the Fantom Foundation released an update outlining the maximum collateral factor and minting cap for each supported form of collateral. The foundation also set the fUSD staking reward at 11.3%
The update also included details on Fantom liquid staking, setting a global cap of 150 million staked Fantom (sFTM), removing validators for the list of those eligible to mint sFTM and setting a loan to value (LTV) ratio of FTM at 90% for the purposes of minting sFTM.
New partnerships improve sentiment for FTM
A handful of recent protocol updates and new partnerships have also helped to bring a boost in momentum to Fantom, including the launch of Snapsync, which allows new nodes to quickly join the network.
With the integration of Snapsync, the time it take for new nodes to synch could be reduced from 24 hours to 7 hours and will help to enhance network reliability, improve scalability and create a greater degree of decentralization.
Fantom has also announced that it is currently in the process of launching Gitcoin on the Fantom network to simplify the process of obtaining grants to develop in the Fantom ecosystem.
Fantom also partnered with Unmarshal and XP.Network. Unmarshal is a Web3 infrastructure provider that will integrate its indexing services with the Fantom protocol to give developers easy access to organized and granular on-chain data.
Through the partnership with XP.Network, Fantom users will be able to bridge nonfungible tokens (NFTs) between Ethereum (ETH), BNB Smart Chain, Elrond (EGLD), Aurora (AURORA), Tron (TRX), Avalanche (AVAX) and Velas (VLX).
Related: Crypto remittances must have allure of cash without regulatory constraints — Jeremy Allaire
Did Andre Cronje return?
Another factor, albeit speculative, bringing a boost FTM price is speculation that well-known DeFi developer Andre Cronje could be contributing toward DeFi development on the Fantom network.

Amid rumors about the return of lead DeFi developer Andre Cronje, the price of the native FTM token has risen by almost 40%. Cronje proposed a number of measures aimed at stabilizing the situation and increasing the sustainability of the Fantom ecosystem as a whole.

— Ashley Torres (@torresamba) May 23, 2022

The speculation started when Cronje submitted an fUSD optimization proposal on May 20 that is designed to solve a major de-pegging issue with the stablecoin. A Fatnom wallet which is believed to belong to Cronje has also added more than 100 million FTM over the past two weeks.
VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for FTM on May 20, prior to the recent price rise.
The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for FTM spiked to a high of 89 on May 20 at the same time as its price began to increase 62.3% over the next three days.
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