Loopring price surges by 50% after GameStop‘s NFT marketplace integration

Filling multiple needs within the cryptocurrency community is one way a project can set itself apart from the competition and new attract users and liquidity to its ecosystem. 

Loopring aims to do exactly this by aiming to offer an Ethereum Virtual Machine- (EVM)-based solution with low fees where decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible token (NFT) developers and investors can transact. The layer-2 (L2) scaling solution utilizes zk-Rollups to provide fast and low-cost transactions. The project has been gaining traction throughout the month of March.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of LRC gained 57% between March 21 and March 23. Its price increased from $0.78 to $1.23 amid a spike in its 24-hour trading volume to $2.75 billion.

Three developments that have helped spark the reversal in the price for Loopring (LRC) include the beta launch of the GameStop NFT marketplace on the Loopring network, the inflow of new users and a rapidly expanding NFT ecosystem.

GameStop selects Loopring for its upcoming NFT Marketplace

The most significant and recent development that helped to drive the increase in demand for LRC was the March 23 announcement that GameStop has integrated the beta version of its NFT marketplace with the Loopring network.

The future of #NFTs are here + they’re powered by #Ethereum’s second layer

Loopring L2 x @GameStop

Power to the players.Power to the creatorsPower to the collectors.#L222https://t.co/0gdvKLivfp

— Loopring‍☠️ (@loopringorg) March 23, 2022

GameStop reports that it chose Loopring to host its NFT marketplace due to the network‘s ability to mint NFTs for a fraction of the cost required on Ethereum, with the average fee being less than $1.

Beta users can begin exploring the marketplace now and deposit funds in preparation for the platform‘s full launch, which is expected to take place in the near future.

Surging user growth

A second factor putting wind in the sails of LRC has been the surge in new users in the Loopring ecosystem as evidenced by the record-high number of wallets joining the network.

According to data from Dune Analytics, the wallet count of the Loopring network has increased from 6,498 on Oct. 30, 2021, to an all-time high of 27,092 on March 25 as the GameStop announcement helped initiate a new of wave users.

The recent release of the Loopring Smart Wallet, which includes the ability to mint NFTs and retrieve a lost account via social recovery and Guardians, has also helped in the process of onboarding new users and wallets in the ecosystem.

Related: GameStop stock up on rumors of Microsoft NFT game partnership

An expanding ecosystem

A third factor helping to boost the outlook of LRC is the overall growth of its ecosystem which includes an NFT community that has already seen more than one million NFTs minted.

Over 1 Million NFTs have been minted on Loopring L2 since the launch of open #NFT minting less than a month ago

Come join our amazing community of Lööpers in the Discord + mint some ultra-secure NFTs on #Ethereum for less than a dollar➡️https://t.co/hL5HQ3Ba8w pic.twitter.com/PQIb9jokFK

— Loopring‍☠️ (@loopringorg) March 18, 2022

Further evidence of its growth can be found looking at the daily volume traded on Loopring, which experienced a significant spike in activity following the March 23 GameStop announcement.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for LRC on March 20, prior to the recent price rise.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for LRC climbed into the green zone on March 19 and proceeded to hit a high of 88 on March 20, around 40 hours before the price increased 57% over the next two days.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.