Dash, which calls itself the “better bitcoin”, has experienced a massive surge overnight with its total market capitalization soaring from $82 million to over $117 million in early Wednesday trading. As of the time of writing it had settled down to $110 million, still up 34% on the day.
Dash market cap, past 7 days. Source: Coinmarketcap.com.
While Dash has been steadily rising in December, sources inform LeapRate that its spike overnight is likely due to the impending release of a significant software upgrade called 12.1 which will set the project up for its revolutionary decentralized payments system, Dash Evolution. Dash is now experiencing trading volumes upwards of $4 million USD per day – a 700% increase from October – and is about to overtake Ethereum Classic as the sixth most valuable cryptocurrency worldwide.
Dash’s rise comes as Bitcoin’s price has also been on a tear lately, with Bitcoin crossing the $1,000 price mark for the first time since Bitcoin-mania hit the world in early 2014.
Dash transactions are verified by users running over 4,000 master nodes across the world. Their built-in governance and funding system allows projects to be proposed and voted on by the community, and if approved, paid for directly from the blockchain. One of the project’s key features is InstantSend, that allows near immediate transaction verifications. Bitcoin users often have to wait anywhere from 10 minutes to 8 hours for transactions to settle. Dash transactions occur within seconds.
More on Dash can be seen in the following video: