Sandbox token SAND rallies 260% in November ahead of play-to-earn metaverse launch

SAND, the native token of the Sandbox — a blockchain-based gaming platform owned by Animoca Brands, inched higher on Tuesday, building on its gains made all across November, to reach another record high.

SAND token price rose to $5.64 after swelling 16.25% intraday but retraced some of those gains to trade at $5.54 at the press time. The move took the Sandbox token's month-to-date (MTD) and year-to-date (YTD) gains to nearly 260% and over 14,700%, respectively, with its market capitalization crossing above $5 billion, making it the 41st-largest coin in the sector.

Many catalysts behind the SAND price rally

This month's exuberance was in part attributable to Sandbox's announcement of opening up part of its metaverse via its multi-week play-to-earn (P2E) Alpha event beginning Nov. 29, at 13:00 UTC.

In detail, the blockchain startup confirmed that it would select a group of 5,000 players to earn up to 1,000 SAND (now worth $5,540) and three nonfungible tokens (NFT) as they spent time across Sandbox's eighteen virtual experiences.

Get ready for The Sandbox Alpha! Launching November 29th Anyone can experience the Alpha hub and three experiences 5,000 Alpha passes giving access to content, NFT, and 1,000 SAND!Get all details below https://t.co/63iAl5MMmS pic.twitter.com/OiXmbAWYN2

Additionally, the recent bout of buying across the SAND spot markets — which saw its price gain over about 37% and 40% against the U.S. dollar and Bitcoin (BTC) in the previous 24 hours — came on hopes of a potential collaboration between the Sandbox and sports merchandise giant Adidas.

On Monday, Adidas's Twitter handle was seen discussing the potential to build a so-called "adiVerse" with the support from the @theSandboxGame, the Sandbox's official Twitter account.

adiVerse anyone? What should we build, together in @TheSandboxGame? ⬇️ https://t.co/VbAdIi9cxN

The tweet received nearly 1,450 retweets and 4,400 likes.

RSI divergence in play

Despite solid fundamentals, SAND risked rallying into a bull trap as its price trends showed clear deviations from its relative strength index (RSI).

Specifically, the RSI typically returns higher values when the market rises, and lower values when it falls. Occasionally, the RSI and the market move in an opposite direction, leading to so-called RSI divergences.

Related: Metaverse and blockchain gaming altcoins rally while Bitcoin looks for support

That said, a falling RSI and a rising market show a bearish divergence. Notably, since the beginning of November, SAND has been forming a similar RSI divergence, a sign that the momentum in the move upside has been slowing down.

That does not mean that the bull trend is over, but alerts about a possible short-term pullback move. The following chart shows the potential entry and exit targets for the sessions ahead, based on the Fibonacci retracement graph between $0.17-swing low and $8.72-swing high.

A pullback upon testing 0.382 Fib level at $5.45 could have SAND return to its next support line at the 0.5 Fib level, near $4.45. The same line has acted as resistance during SAND's upside attempts between Nov. 18 and Nov. 22.

Conversely, a continued move above $5.45, accompanied by a rise in volumes, may open the possibility for SAND to test $6.70 — at 0.236 Fib level — as its next upside target.

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