About FTM

The native token of the FANTOM smart contract platform, Fantom (FTM) is a multi-purpose asset. It runs that network. It’s staked, used to pay network fees and for governance. 

The platform is geared toward developers who want to be able to replicate their smart contract creation/deployment efforts on Ethereum – only faster and less expensively – by way of FANTOM's proprietary OPERA CHAIN. It’s said to be uniquely designed for processing blocks on a large scale, as opposed to one at a time (as with the Ethereum and Bitcoin networks).

Using smart contracts, developers can create decentralized applications (dApps) that power decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, of which there are hundreds, run in a decentralized fashion, upending traditional financial services, which are run centrally. Smart contracts also underpin the exploding realm of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), with smart contracts emerging as an ideal means of authenticating digital ownership.

Fantom uses a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) node community consensus-reaching approach considered more energy efficient than Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus protocols associated with ETH and BTC.

It has modeled itself on the Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), using the core DAG architecture as a means to overcome slow transaction speeds and high fees found on Ethereum.

From the FTM white paper: “The platform intends to distinguish itself from the traditional block ledger-based storage infrastructure by attempting to employ an improved version of existing DAG-based protocols.” 

How? The FANTOM platform adopts a new protocol known as the “Lachesis Protocol,” a DAG-based asynchronous non-deterministic algorithm that runs the Opera mainnet of Fantom. The main purpose of Opera mainnet is to enable the use of smart contracts through Ethereum's EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine). 

Fantom supporting the EVM means dApps can be deployed just as they would be on Ethereum. Fantom can handle thousands of transactions per second. Transaction fees are measured in fractions of pennies. In spring 2021, Fantom crossed 3 million transactions. It’s considered to be the industry’s fastest network, according to Motley Fool.

The Fantom ecosystem now comprises 80-plus dApps, including NFT platforms, decentralized exchanges (DEXs), including SpookySwap, and cross-chain bridges as well as lending/borrowing platforms. One noteworthy example of the latter: Geist, a decentralized non-custodial liquidity market protocol with a total value locked (TVL) that took off after launching in October 2021.

The current price of FTM

As of early November 2021, FTM was about $2.60 following a stunning run to a record high of nearly $3.50. That was on Oct. 28, 2021. Within a few days, FTM cooled off considerably, losing one-fourth of its value. Still, it has had a remarkable rise since the early days of the pandemic, March 2020. At that time, FTM was not even one penny. It steadily gained over 18 months and spent the month of August 2021 going straight up, journeying from 25 cents toward $1. Between late October 2020 and late October 2021, FTM increased 15,000%. As of early November, FTM was the 34th-largest coin in terms of total market capitalization.

How the price of FTM is determined

The total maximum supply of FTM is roughly 3.2 billion, of which more than 2.5 billion are in circulation. The rest of the FTM tokens are reserved for providing staking rewards to the FTM holders, said CoinMarketCap.

The rewards depend on governance decisions; however, as of now, it may take two years for the FTM token to reach full circulation and distribute all the rewards to staked FTM holders. 

FTM tokens can be bought from all major exchanges. Whether Fantom (FTM) will hit $10 in the near future depends on numerous factors, but, generally, a bullish view on DeFi translates into a bullish take on FTM.  

What the bulls are saying about Fantom (FTM)

• The excitement around FTM comes largely from its potential to be a better version of Ethereum, said Motley Fool.
• Were FTM to get past a stubborn hurdle near $4 it could break out toward a new all-time high of more than $7, said CryptoBriefing.
• On-chain data for the network showed a steadily increasing engagement rate; the network now has 415,000 unique addresses conducting more than 300,000 transactions per day, said Cointelegraph.

What the bears are saying about Fantom (FTM)

• One look at the technical signals, specifically bands known as oscillators, confirms that any move lower for FTM price will likely be sustained, said FXStreet in September.
• A dreaded double bottom pattern was spotted in late October; bearish divergence in its chart projects weakness among the market buyers, said The Market Periodical.
• FTM could be on its way to another correction before making any further bullish runs. Whereas FTM/USD is currently consolidating, it is forming bearish signals, said FXLeaders.