It’s hard to argue that the crypto market is not in a bull market right now, but this run does show different characteristics and catalysts than the 2017 bull market. 

In 2017, investors were hyped by the allure of high returns from initial coin offerings (ICO) that promised much but delivered very little in the form of an actually working ‘product.’

Fast forward to 2020, and the current altcoin season has been primarily focused on lending, liquidity, and yield farming. Growing interest in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) was triggered by the four-digit APYs being earned from staking assets, besides the decentralized access to legacy assets via synthetic tokens. Moreover, pure speculation of buying and staking nonfungible tokens is driving the total crypto market capitalization to new highs.

Some blockchains offer delegated staking and while staking and node validation provide lucrative rewards to operators, deploying a node isn’t something that average users may find challenging. Even for more experienced users, setting up developer nodes might take time.

Ankr protocol allows easy access to multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Polkadot, and Binance Smart Chain. By offering a cloud solution, users can deploy staking nodes and developer nodes in minutes instead of purchasing, setup, and then maintaining pricey setups on their own.

In February, ANKR had a $170 million market capitalization and was trading in a relatively flat range. Still, the most recent 137% rally kicked off as the project became a Binance Smart Chain validator.

ANKR token price at Binance. Source: TradingView

As the token reached a $0.06 all-time-high on March 12, its market capitalization surpassed $400 million.

Ankr’s one-click solution also offers nodes for Eth2, Avalanche, Bitcoin, Celo, Cosmos, Decred, Matic, Qtum, Tezos, and many other blockchain networks. Moreover, Ankr will handle Eth2 staking with as little as 0.5 Ether, and the project provides instant liquidity by issuing a synthetic asset called aETH.

ANKR is the native governance token of the Ankr Staking platforms, and it also serves as a payment method for services, such as node deployment and app usage.