Interoperability has emerged as the hot topic in February as platforms like Binance Smart Concatenation and Polkadot piece of work on building Ethereum network bridges that let users to escape high transaction costs and network congestion.

Fantom (FTM) is the latest project to receive a boost past offer cross-chain functionality with Ethereum, and data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows a i,570% increase in FTM cost from $0.025 on January. 23 to a new high of $0.43 on February. 21.

FTM/USDT four-hour nautical chart. Source: TradingView

Three key reasons for Fantom'due south current rally are the release of a cross-concatenation bridge between Ethereum and Fantom, the gyre-out of on-chain governance features and the ability to stake tokens on the network while still accessing their value for apply in the decentralized finance ecosystem.

Yearn.finance helps facilitate a cross-concatenation span to Ethereum

On Feb. 21, Fantom, with the help of Andre Cronje of Yearn.finance, announced the development of a cross-chain bridge with Ethereum that allows users to transfer ERC-20 tokens to Fantom to "relish fast and cheap transactions."

According to the team, transactions on Fantom "are confirmed in 1-2 seconds" and "price a fraction of a cent." The team also promised that cantankerous-chain functionality with other chains will be before long to follow.

VORTECS™ information from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for FTM on Feb. 21, prior to the recent price rising.

The VORTECS™ score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading book, recent toll movements and Twitter activeness.

VORTECS™ score (dark-green) vs. FTM price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

Every bit seen on the nautical chart above, the VORTECS™ score for FTM reached a high of 82 on Feb. 16, several days before the recent price rally began. On Feb. 17, Cronje posted a tweet mentioning the benefits of deploying new cross-chain assets to Fantom.

Cronje said:

Users won't even know they are on another chain, things will just suddenly become inexpensive and fast.

One day after the tweet, FTM price increased from $0.154 to $0.218 and the altcoin surged once more on Feb. xix as information technology rallied to a new 2021 high at $0.277.

VORTECS™ score (green) vs. FTM price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

The VORTECS™ score for Fantom and then proceeded to increase from a depression of 56 on Feb. 19 to a high of 74 on Feb. 21, shortly before the toll broke out to a new all-time loftier.

On-chain governance boosts community interest

Some other ane of the pop themes of the electric current bull market is the ability of tokenholders to participate in the evolution of the ecosystem via a governance mechanism.

On Jan. 12, the Fantom Foundation unveiled the release of on-chain governance for the Fantom network, becoming one of the first chains to support such functioning for a fully decentralized blockchain.

Related: The staking race: Late aspirant Ethereum lags behind rivals with Eth2

Through the governance mechanism, each FTM token equals i vote, and any tokenholder tin can submit a proposal on ways to improve the ecosystem, as well as vote on any pending proposal.

Proposal submissions cost 100 FTM, which is burned during the operation, and voting costs a fraction of 1 FTM.

The Fantom voting system differs from other governance platforms, as it offers a variety of proposal templates and the ability to express the degree of agreement with the proposal every bit opposed to casting a uncomplicated "yeah" or "no" vote.

Fantom plans to integrate staking and DeFi features

A 3rd motivating gene behind the recent price rising of FTM is the introduction of liquid staking, or the ability to stake tokens on the network and simultaneously access the value of the token for apply in DeFi.

On well-nigh proof-of-stake networks, tokenholders have to choose between staking their tokens to secure the network and earn rewards or give up those rewards to access the value of the token as collateral or for trading purposes.

FTM holders are able to stake their tokens on the network and mint an equivalent amount of sFTM, which can and then exist used every bit collateral on the Fantom Finance DeFi platform.

Providing tokenholders with an extra way to earn a yield has proved to exist an attractive incentive, and after FTM was listed on SushiSwap and 1inch on Jan. 25, its price exploded from $0.05 to $0.26 over the next three days.

Since then, FTM has been added to Coinbase Custody and the Ledger hardware wallet, likewise as being chosen past the Ministry building of Digital Transformation of Ukraine as the platform for the exchange of intellectual property.

Each of these developments supports the strong breakout in FTM price, and the upcoming public release of its Ethereum cross-chain span has placed Fantom in a good position to receive a new level of DeFi appointment. Furthermore, the prospect of transaction fees that cost less than $0.01 may prove to be an enticing incentive for crypto traders and could lead to liquidity migration.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading movement involves gamble, you should deport your own enquiry when making a decision.