Although it's been around for a while now, Ankr (ANKR) is fast emerging as one of the hottest altcoins to watch, rising by more than 1,000% since the beginning of 2021 - offering significantly higher returns than other leading digital tokens in this space. The soaring popularity of DeFi is one of the main drivers propelling this cryptocurrency higher. As of June 2021, it ranks 101 on Coinmarketcap based on its market capitalization with a TVL of over $133 million.

It is one of the most promising coins to watch in the DeFi space, sharing the spotlight with Maker, Uniswap, Aave ahd Chainlink. What works in its favor is that Ankr is not a merely speculative digital asset like most other cryptocurrencies but offers real value as a distributed computing based blockchain network to power Web3 and cross-chain DeFi staking platforms. Its soaring popularity caught the eye of one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges and Coinbase started offering ANKR as an option for trading on its platform in March 2021, helping drive the Ankr price higher.

Ankr Breakdown

Ankr is designed with the intention to democratize the internet, making Web3 technologies more accessible for users, in addition to enhancing user experience and cost effectiveness of the innovation. It leverages the decentralized model of blockchain technology as a means to provide Web3 services such as cloud to enterprises at a fraction of the cost.

Based on the distributed computing model, the Ankr network allows users to lend their device's storage or capacity to power projects on its network in exchange for rewards. In this manner, it incentivizes both active participants as well as those users who have latent capacity to increase collaboration. In addition to its business model, Ankr has also entered into promising partnerships with other leading blockchain networks, including Polkadot, Harmony and Binance Smart Chain to increase their user base.

Since its inception, Ankr already supports over 40 blockchain protocols for staking or development. In addition, its technology can also be leveraged by cryptocurrency exchanges, staking platforms as well as companies in the data analytics space.

Ankr History

ANKR traces its origin back to 2017 and was created by a team of engineers at the University of Berkeley, California. Two of the founding members have worked at Amazon and were involved in the development of Alexa Internet as well as Amazon Web Services (AWS), giving them an edge in the world of cloud computing. In addition, its team also consists of numerous other engineers who have worked at some of the best tech companies in Silicon Valley, before coming together to create a revolutionary approach to harness unused computing power in a secure and confidential manner towards powering next-generation digital projects that can run on Web 3.0.

Ankr's prototype and testnet launch took place in 2018, after it integrated BOINC into its network. In addition, the company turned focus towards data centers, coming out with solutions targeted at them in addition to launching pilot versions and UX. The following year, Ankr partnered with the Linux Foundation to work on several projects, including Matic Network and Blockcloud. Ankr's mainnet launch took place in July 2019, and almost a year later in April 2020, Ankr launched its Harmony Open Staking testnet campaign, reaching over 300 testnet nodes deployed on its network. Ankr then went on to launch its Eth2 staking solution, Stkr, in late 2020, which introduced DeFi powered by the ANKR token.

Ankr Price Factors

In the face of stiff competition from existing and new players in the market, Ankr rate can be heavily influenced by the addition of new features that can drive its adoption and usage higher. With DeFi gaining popularity and several blockchain projects vying for the limelight, the pace of progress is a key factor that can drive changes in the ANKR rate. In addition, news updates about new partnerships that Ankr enters into can also affect the Ankr price.

Market leaders, especially Bitcoin, play an important role in driving the sentiment in the crypto space. Any negative news in the media about cryptocurrencies in general or specifically about Bitcoin can also cause a slump in the ANKR price, scaring investors from the market as a whole.

The ANKR rate also experiences significant volatility whenever news about regulations in the crypto industry are published. This is because cryptocurrencies are an emerging space with high levels of volatility as they are mostly unregulated. Any development about a country laying out regulations to govern their usage or trading can affect the price of all digital assets, ANKR included.

Trading Ankr

The first step in order to trade Ankr is to open an account with a cryptocurrency exchange or broker that offers this instrument. Some of the popular crypto exchanges that support ANKR trading include Binance, Coinbase, CoinTiger, Upbit, Huobi Global, eToroX, Crypto.com and Digifinex. Once you have opened your account, you can convert your trading capital from fiat or other cryptocurrencies into ANKR and then enter into trades by buying or selling your holding after analyzing the Ankr chart on how the price is expected to move, based on fundamental and technical analysis.