What happened
Aragon's (ANT +2.24%) cryptocurrency has posted big gains over the last day of trading. The ANT token was up roughly 19.5% over the previous 24 hours of trading as of 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
The gains appear to correspond with the DAO Tooling Panel and Hackathon hosted by blockchain social platform Moledao, which Aragon's Juliette Chevalier participated in. Aragon's decentralized finance (DeFi) application provides decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) creation tools and services, and the ANT token is used to handle voting rights that effect development within organizations built through the Aragon app.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Aragon is still a relatively small player in the overall cryptocurrency and DAO categories, and its token is predisposed to posting big moves on relatively little news. The cryptocurrency is now up roughly 31% over the last seven days of trading, and the gains appear to be driven by rising interest in DAOs and the services they can provide to businesses and cryptocurrency- and blockchain-based applications.
Now what
Increasing adoption for the Aragon application could help drive its token price significantly higher, but it's worth keeping in mind that speculation on the cryptocurrency's price has likely also been a driving factor in the token's gains this year. There's a fundamental service here that could see increasing value, but there's also a risk that the current token price is more reflective of hype than underlying service capabilities.
The Aragon token has climbed 112% year to date and now has a market capitalization of roughly $260 million. There's still room for explosive growth from here, but investors should approach the ANT token with the understanding that it remains a high-risk, largely speculative play.
