The rise of Kaspa (KAS) throughout 2023 has been nothing short of extraordinary. The altcoin has bucked the overall market trend through most of the crypto winter, but really put on the burners this past week after posting 70% seven-day gains. The drastic price swing comes as the rest of the market consolidates sideways after a terrific October. The meteoric trajectory of Kaspa has taken the project from irrelevance to a top 30 token by market cap. All up, the price of a single KAS token has increased by an almost unthinkable 78,285% since its release in July 2022. 

What’s Behind the KAS Revolution?

There are two bits of news that seem to be driving Kaspa’s incredible 2023. Firstly, the well-known crypto exchange Uphold became the first major centralised broker to offer KAS to its customers. This means that it finally became simple for investors to purchase KAS using a fiat on-ramp. 

Similarly, rumours have begun circling that a listing on Binance – by far the world’s biggest crypto exchange – is just around the corner. This would be a massive coup for the Kaspa project, as it would give thousands of more investors, many with large portfolios and net worths, easier access to the coin.

Although momentum has been building prior to the listing on centralised exchanges, the fact remains that most of the broader, casual investing community steers well clear of decentralised exchanges. They are a little more complex and dangerous than centralised counterparts – although come with several advantages too. Institutional investors with a background in traditional finance are less likely to use DeFi services and have a greater impact on the price movements of an asset than the average crypto investor.

What Does Kaspa Aim to Do?

Kaspa is a project intending to solve the oft-discussed blockchain trilemma of balancing scalability with security and decentralisation. Interestingly, Kaspa uses a Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism (mining, like Bitcoin), which most new projects have trended away from recently. However, Kaspa pairs PoW with blockDAG tech and rapid transaction processing, which creates a “best of both worlds” situation by avoiding the inefficiencies of mining while capitalising on its superior security.