Cronje Says "No Announcement," So What's Behind the FTM Surge?

Blockhead -

Fantom's FTM has jumped 65% over the past week following news that Axelar will bring cross-chain swaps to the platform.

FTM reached highs of US$0.49 today, adding to its ongoing rally, accounting for a 145% increase since the start of the year.

Fantom's most recent spike is attributed to an announcement that Axelar will offer interchain communication via Fantom.

Described by the Axelar team as "the Stripe for Web3", Axelar network is a blockchain that connects blockchains, facilitating web3 interoperability. Proof-of-stake is used to secure the network.

In a statement published on its blog, Fantom said, "Axelar is a network that unlocks this potential by connecting 30 chains, including Fantom, to offer cross-chain communication. It brings secure, decentralized interoperability to every connected chain."

Axelar's integration with Fantom uses General Message Passing (GMP) for a "seamless user experience" that allows developers to call contracts on any Axelar-connected chain.

Developers can thus build DeFi apps that use NFTs minted on another chain as collateral without needing to move the asset across different chains.

The integration Fantom's SpookySwap will also facilitate one-click cross-chain swaps.

"No announcement"

Fantom's Axelar news comes just days after Fantom founder Andre Cronje tweeted that there will be "no announcements or reveals."

"Expectation management is important," Cronje tweeted on Monday. "I want to stress THERE WILL BE NO ANNOUNCEMENTS OR REVEALS. No, this isn't reverse psychology, I'm serious, we aren't focused on announcements anymore, we simply discuss progress."

Cronje has held a "no announcement" stance since December last year but reiterated it a few days ago.

Nonetheless, the Axelar announcement clearly went down well with the Fantom crowd, despite Cronje warning "don't expect any hype" in a previous tweet.

It's not clear why Cronje is downplaying the hype, especially considering he revealed Fantom has 30 years of funds in November 2022.

Read more: Andre Cronje Reveals Fantom Financials, Has 30 Years of Funds

Cronje is regarded as integral to the success of Fantom. Described as a “prolific coder and legendary DeFi founder” by Crypto Briefing, Cronje’s credentials include founding Yearn.Finance, DeFi architect behind curve.finance, and a number of other prominent DeFi projects.

Read more: Andre Cronje Supposedly Returns to Fantom, FTM Pumps 34%

His departure from the project in March 2022 caused FTM's price to plummet, only for it to surge when he returned to Fantom a few months later.