Decentralized storage protocol Filecoin leads top 100 on 27% jump in price

Filecoin (FIL) jumped 27% over the last 24 hours to $6.857 at the time of press, leading the top 100 coins by market cap.

A volatile 24 hours has seen large caps experience a minor sell-off, losing momentum, following Bitcoin recording a YTD high of $25,260 around 16:00 (GMT)on Feb. 16.

Nonetheless, standout performances over the last 24 hours from Filecoin, Astar, up 17%, and Rokcet Pool, gaining 15.5%, have bucked this trend.

Filecoin’s YTD gains amount to a 130% increase in price, having started the year at $3.013. In line with general market movements, FIL had been steadily rising throughout January, moving above the 50-day moving average on the 12th.

By Jan. 22, a two-week period ranging between $4.646 and $5.83 began. Having re-tested the $4.646 support zone a second time on Feb. 13, Filecoin began trending higher.

Today, Feb. 17, sees a 27% upswing in the daily candle (coinciding with a 27% increase in price over the last 24 hours) to post a 26-week high.

Despite the strong run, FIL is still down 97% from its $236.84 all-time high, achieved on April 1, 2021.

Filecoin Virtual Machine

No new fundamental developments were noted to explain the uptick in buyers.

However, on Jan. 19, the project announced Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM,) which is set to go live on March 1 during ETHDenver.

FVM is the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) operating on top of the Filecoin protocol, enabling developers to port any EVM smart contract to FVM. This will bring general programmability to the Filecoin storage network, enabling use cases such as perpetual storage, DeFi, and DataDaos.

Datadaos refer to preserving and curating datasets, including research databases, and opening up the value and utility of that data through a tokenized stakeholder system.

“The Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM) is a runtime environment for smart contracts (also called actors) on the Filecoin network. FVM brings user programmability to Filecoin, unleashing the enormous potential of an open data economy.”