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IOTA was once a crypto-market sensation but largely went silent during the pandemic. But the project is being pulled into the spotlight once again with a 10% gain today after an intervention by Dominik Schiener, IOTA’s cofounder, during an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session held yesterday.
Schiener’s comments—which confirmed the forthcoming IOTA Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) launch and the debut of IOTA’s new alpha version—sparked a market flurry, but he also recommended that IOTA holders to stake their tokens on the IOTA EVM by the second quarter, which also may have sparked a buying hype among token farmers.
The IOTA Foundation’s recent release of the alpha version of iota-ore last week marked a significant step toward refining protocol parameters and bolstering network usability. Hans Moog, a key developer at the foundation, announced the upgrade on his social media account.
Btw, are people aware of the fact that we released the first alpha version of iota-core (coordicide) last week?https://t.co/7qP1e8H4x9
— Hans Moog 🦋 (@hus_qy) January 23, 2024
The alpha release brings fixes to its docker network integration, mitigating future hacks by nightly tests, expedited error detection, and better code management for its diverse team members. Developers can now use local snapshots, reducing the burden of continual uploads and downloads.
While the alpha release may not be brimming with updates, Moog emphasized its significance “Nobody cares about an alpha for a testnet but the community can maybe derive some knowledge about our progress from this release,” he said.
The market response
IOTA appears to be recovering after all the blows thrown by bears. This after a clear bearish trend since December 2023. The latest news helped the token bounce after touching the monthly minimum at $0.19 before the announcements. Since then, it has climbed all the way up to $0.24 by the time of writing.
The highest price today was $0.25, an impressive 12% spike after the correction, which makes it the highest-performing token after Chilliz (+13.66%) for the last 24 hours.
Image: Tradingview
Unpacking more esoteric metrics like Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs), the Average Directional Index (ADX), and Relative Strength Index (RSI), a bearish trend for IOTA still seems likely. Still, today’s price spike—or minimally a pause in its descent—could set the stage for a comeback, and if the token turns bullish, Tradingview forecasts a possible target near $0.263.
In a bearish scenario, the price could fall back to $0.23, with a monthly low of $0.195 marking the next support to break.
Like weather forecasts, of course, predictions are often worth little more than the pixels they’re printed on. But the return of IOTA to the crypto community is ultimately noteworthy.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
