First Mover: 0x's ZRX Token Surged 67% in May to Become Month's Top Performer

The ZRX token from 0x, a developer at the forefront of the fast-evolving landscape for decentralized exchanges (DEXs), surged 67% in May to become the month's top-performing digital asset. 

Basic Attention Token (BAT) had the second-best performance, with an 18% return in May, according to CoinDesk Research. 

Bitcoin ranked third with an 11% gain for the month. The largest cryptocurrency by market value traded in a range between about $8,500 and $10,000 for most of May, ending at about $9,500.

You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You can subscribe here.

Among the worst-performing tokens was XRP from Ripple, which slid 5.6% on the month to 20 cents. Bitcoin SV (BSV) lost 7.4%, falling to $192. 

ZRX's May surge took the token's price to the highest in almost a year, though the current price of about 32 cents is still down some 87% from the all-time-high of $2.50 reached in January 2018, according to data provider Messari.

The 0x project, which is led by co-founder and CEO Will Warren and raised the equivalent of $24 million in a token sale in 2017, specializes in software that can be used to create DEXs – essentially automated trading systems that can be maintained and operated with distributed computing networks. 

0x upgraded its protocol in December of last year to aggregate liquidity from on-chain sources like Uniswap, Oasis and Kyber. At the time, analysis firm Delphi Digital described the change in a report as a "step in the right direction."  

In a March follow-up report, Delphi noted that the protocol had seen steady trade-volume growth since the upgrade took effect, mostly driven by non-fungible tokens (which can be given different attributes and are used for crypto collectibles) trading on TokenTrove. 

Last month, 0x announced a second-quarter beta launch of a new trading platform, Matcha, that the company says has been "built to feel natural, intuitive, and highlight the convenience of peer-to-peer crypto trading." 

Denis Vinokourov, head of research for the crypto prime broker Bequant, said in emailed comments that the token may be getting some support from its weekly staking payouts – which are rewards for holding tokens, akin to interest.

According to Bitcoin Insider, the 0x community voted May 7 in favor of a proposal that would cut the time period between staking payouts from 10 days to seven. 

And the ZRX token enjoyed a steep one-day pop earlier this month when Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin remarked that 0x was "one of the projects he wants to try out," according to the publication. 

BTC: Price: $9,544 (BPI) | 24-Hr High: $9,635 | 24-Hr Low: $9,394

Trend: Bitcoin jumped over 8% last week, erasing a major portion of the double-digit price drop seen in the preceding week. 

The outlook, however, remains neutral with the cryptocurrency still trapped in a 3.5-week-long narrowing price range, or contracting triangle, as seen on the daily chart. 

A UTC close above the triangle resistance at $9,835 would indicate a resumption of the rally from the March low of $3,867 and open the doors to re-test of the February high of $10,500. Alternatively, a move under the lower end of the triangle at $8,890 would confirm a bearish reversal and potentially allow a test of the 200-day average at $8,070. 

Some chart analysts argue that the longer duration charts (monthly and weekly) have turned bullish. "Great month for Bitcoin, as it broke above previous resistance," tweeted popular analyst Josh Rager after the cryptocurrency ended Sunday at $9,446. 

Meanwhile, on the weekly chart, the cryptocurrency has cleared the resistance of the trendline falling from June 2019 and February 2020 highs. Add to that a golden crossover on the daily chart and the path of least resistance appears to be to the higher side. As such, the cryptocurrency may end the 3.5-week-long contracting triangle with a bullish breakout. 

Rager, however, warned that the bullish May close could turn out to be a trap for buyers and stronger evidence of a bull revival would be a weekly close above $10,713. 

Further, the cryptocurrency fell 2.5% on Sunday, forming a bearish "inside day" candle and aborting the upward move from last Monday's low of $8,630.

Technical traders usually wait for confirmation of a trend change in the form of a negative follow-through to the inside day candle, meaning, a stronger selling pressure could emerge if prices drop below Sunday's low of $9,370 over the next 24 hours.