Cosmos price spikes to a new all-time high as ‘Stargate’ upgrade approaches

The upcoming “Stargate” upgrade with Inter-Blockchain Communication helps propel the price of Cosmos' ATOM to a new all-time high.

The price of Cosmos' ATOM has increased 240% since the beginning of February as excitement builds for the approaching Stargate upgrade on Feb. 18 that will help connect all Cosmos-based chains together using Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC).

Data shows that ATOM was trading at a price of $7.83 on Feb. 1 before a series of positive announcements, including the ability to stake ATOM on Binance, helped lift the token to a new all-time high of $26.68 on Feb. 16.

Stargate has been a much-anticipated upgrade for the Cosmos community, as the introduction of IBC will enable the exchange of transactions of value and data across compatible chains.

Cosmos-based blockchains are currently siloed and unable to communicate or interact in a secure way. IBC is expected to help bring the separate chains together into the new Cosmos network ecosystem.

Other features included in the upgrade are the Protobuf migration, which helps accelerate front-end development and improve overall blockchain performance, and state sync, which helps new nodes synchronize 200 times faster and participate in consensus in just minutes rather than days.

Excitement for Stargates release has been building for months while ATOM price traded flat. Price action began to pick up on Jan. 15 when it was announced that the Stargate launch, which was originally scheduled for Jan. 28, would be postponed until Feb. 18.

In the past few days, meanwhile, data began to detect a bullish outlook for ATOM, prior to the recent price rise.

As seen in the chart above, During Feb. 11 to Feb. 14, ATOM price traded sideways and experienced a brief drop. The dip was short lived, however, and the price soon began an 80% rally to its new all-time high of $26.68 on Feb. 16.

The launch of Stargate represents an important milestone on the Cosmos development roadmap. But the IBC integration is also expected to be followed by separate Tendermint-based projects like Band Protocol and Kava joining the Cosmos network for greater blockchain interoperability.