Aave’s native token has surged nearly 97% since the protocol's version 3 (v3) upgrade earlier this month, data shows.

In the past 24 hours alone, AAVE prices rose 27% as demand for its tokens increased among traders. Open interest on AAVE-tracked futures – or the total number of contracts held by market participants – hovers at $210 million, while DeFi trackers show value locked on Aave increased 10% in the past week to $14 billion.

Price charts show AAVE broke above resistance at $170 and $200 on Tuesday to surge to current resistance at the $240 level. Relative Strength Index (RSI) readings, which measure the magnitude of price changes, suggest the rally was overextended and could see a correction to the $220 level, where support exists.

The moves came on the back of Aave’s v3 upgrade that went live on March 16, 2022. AAVE exchanged hands at $122 at the time, data shows.

Proposed initially in November 2021, Aave v3 introduced cross-chain “portals,” isolated markets, a “high efficiency” mode and other features for a better user experience to compete with other decentralized finance (DeFi) products in the crypto market.

Portals, one of the biggest improvements, allows users to swap assets from any blockchain from which Aave, whose name is the Finnish word for "ghost," is deployed. Users can create “aTokens” – which represent deposits into Aave – on one chain and burn them on another. This further opens up the possibilities of on-chain trading strategies, such as yield arbitrage.

Some analysts said the new features improve trust for Aave’s products in the broader market.

“The growth is fueled by the trust in the protocol with the new features added which include allowing assets to seamlessly flow between Aave v3 markets over different networks,” said Egor Volotkovich, director of cross-chain solutions EVODeFi, in a Telegram message.

“Investors understand that with Aave v3, [decentralized finance] lending will be more accessible and secure, and hence will want to continually accumulate the token now that it is far below its all-time highs,” Volotkovich added. AAVE reached lifetime highs of $661 in May 2021 and is currently 64% below those levels.

An added benefit to Aave users in version 3 is the deep liquidity that the platform now provides, some pointed out. "Aave is typically seen as a lending protocol. However, they've focused on building deep liquidity on multiple blockchains," explained Ermin Nurovic, co-founder of asset management platform dHEDGE, in an email to CoinDesk.

"As a result, they're now perfectly positioned for cross-chain transactions. This is something the market didn't earlier price in," Nurovic added.

Aave v3 was deployed across six different blockchains, with a seventh – Ethereum mainnet – forthcoming at an unspecified date, as reported.

In a separate catalyst earlier this month, Brazil’s central bank included Aave among nine partners to build out its central bank digital currency (CBDC). The list also features banking giant Santander Brazil and crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin.

AAVE was trading at $236 at the time of writing and has a market capitalization of over $3.1 billion.