Projects facilitating cross-chain integration with the Polkadot ecosystem have rallied to new highs while the Ethereum network continues to struggle with high fees.
Polkadot (DOT) has emerged as one of the top-choice blockchain networks over the past year thanks to its focus on facilitating interoperability between separate networks, especially Ethereum (ETH).
As a result of Polkadot’s rise to prominence, projects that have embraced the concept of interoperability and joined the Polkadot ecosystem have seen a boost in their token prices over the past few months.
Ren (REN), Ocean Protocol (OCEAN) and the Celer Network (CELR) are three such projects that have led the way in facilitating cross-chain interoperability between networks, resulting in healthy increases to the number of active token holders and each project’s trading volume.
REN/USDT
Ren is an open blockchain protocol that was specifically designed to provide interoperability and liquidity between a large number of separate blockchains, including Ethereum, Bitcoin (BTC) and Polkadot.
Collaboration with the Polkadot network began back in July 2020, when it was announced that Ren would partner with the Acala network (ACA) to help bring Bitcoin to the DOT ecosystem.
At the time of the announcement, REN was trading at an average price of $0.15 and has since surged to a high of $1.80 on Feb. 20 as further integrations with other blockchains like Dogecoin and Digibyte have helped propel the price of REN higher.
OCEAN/USDT
Ocean protocol is a blockchain-based ecosystem that helps users unlock the value of data and monetize it through the creation of data tokens, which wrap data sets and allow third-parties to perform operations utilizing the data in a secure manner.
This enables publishers to monetize their data while preserving privacy and control. The network also gives consumers an easier way to access previously unavailable data.
Discussions of Ocean building on top of Polkadot began back in July of 2020 and the first confirmed integration came on Jan. 25, 2021, when Ocean announced that it was partnering with the Polkadot-based Moonbeam network (GLMR) to allow users of the Polkadot ecosystem to publish, stake, and buy data.
Over the following months, new partnerships and cross-chain announcements were revealed and OCEAN proceeded to rally 250% to a new all-time high at $1.69 on March 7.
CELR/USDT
Celer Network is a layer 2 scaling platform designed to “bring interactive, secure and low-cost applications to every blockchain” according to the project’s website. The goal of the platform is to enable users to build, operate and use scalable DApps “through innovations in off-chain scaling techniques and incentive-aligned crypto-economics.”
CELR’s integration with the Polkadot ecosystem was announced on Jan. 19 when the project released its state channel substrate model which supports layer-2 scaling and instant payments on Polkadot.
Since that time, the price of CELR has increased 240% from a low of $0.019 on Jan. 19 to an all-time high of $0.067 on March 15 as layer-2 solutions continue to gain traction for offering alternatives to high transaction costs on Ethereum.
As the cryptocurrency bull market continues to develop and the Ethereum network struggles with congestion and high fees, Polkadot-related projects that offer cross-chain solutions and venture into the realms of decentralized finance and NFTs are well-positioned to see further adoption and price appreciation.
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