EOS price jumps 20% for biggest gain in 15 months — what's fueling the uptrend?

EOS rose approximately 20% to reach $1.66 on Aug. 17 and was on track to log its best daily performance since May 2021.

Initially, the EOS rally came in the wake of its positive correlation with top-ranking cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), which gained over 2% and 3.75%, respectively. But the upside move was also driven by a flurry of uplifting updates emerging from the EOS ecosystem.

EOS incentive program launch

On Aug. 14, the EOS Network Foundation (ENF), a not-for-profit organization that oversees the growth and development of the EOS blockchain, opened registrations for its upcoming "Yield+" incentive program.

The Yield+ is a liquidity incentive and reward program to attract DeFi applications that generate returns for their users. In doing so, the service attempts to compete with its top blockchain rivals in the DeFi space, namely Ethereum, Cardano (ADA), and Solana (SOL).

Since the beginning of Yield+ registration, the total value locked (TVL) inside the EOS pools has increased from 94.71 EOS to 102.18 EOS, showing a temporary spike in demand for the tokens. The TVL will likely increase in the days leading up to the reward activation on Aug. 28.

The Yield+ Launch Is Imminent!Designed to build economic activity on $EOS through incentivizing DeFi dApps that increase TVL and generate yield.August 14th — Registration opensAugust 28th — Rewards for TVL beginGet all the details here:➡️ https://t.co/fFOZCOEG4y ⬅️ https://t.co/b6q4Xmlay7 pic.twitter.com/ePZPkEiu4I

EOS hard fork in September

In addition, EOS will rebrand to EOSIO later this week, followed by a v3.1 consensus upgrade called Mandel in September, according to Yves La Rose, the CEO of ENF.

The rebranding and upgrade serve as EOS's symbolic divorce from Block.One, the company that originally designed the network, nine months after the EOS community elected to stop the issuance of 67 million EOS (~$108 million) to it on malpractice concerns.

La Rose noted that the upgrade would occur via a hard fork, meaning that the new version (EOSIO) will not be backwards compatible with the original chain and will follow new consensus rules.

Rebranding EOSIO and hardforking #EOS is a necessary part of the comeback, and represents the start of a new chapter: #TheNewEOS Under the leadership of the @EOSNFoundation, $EOS can finally break through its glass ceiling and reach its full potential!

A hard fork also means that in the event of a possible chain split, all the existing EOS holders will receive an equal amount of tokens on both chains. In theory, that could increase EOS demand among speculators in the days leading up to the hard fork as witnessed in the case of Ethereum.

Technicals hint at more upside

From a technical perspective, EOS's price eyes an extended bull trend in the coming weeks

The first major hint comes from a cup-and-handle formation on the EOS daily chart, confirmed by a U-shaped price trajectory followed by a downward channel trend. As a rule of technical analysis, a cup-and-handle breakout should send the price higher by as much as the pattern's maximum height.

As a result, EOS's upside target comes to be near $2.45, up almost 50% from today's price

Related: Is Ethereum really the best blockchain to form a DAO?

Nevertheless, as a note of caution, the breakout risks losing its momentum near EOS's 200-day exponential moving average (200-day EMA; the blue wave) at $1.79. Such a pullback could have EOS test the 50-day EMA (the red wave) at $1.21 as its next downside target, almost 25% below the current price.

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