Expert take: Here’s why CRV rallied 500% to 22-month highs

The Curve DAO token saw significant growth as December started, emerging as one of the top gainers over the past month.

Curve DAO (CRV) rallied 500% in 30 days, reaching $1.33 with a market cap of $1.6 billion on Dec. 7 — the highest level since February 2023. The asset faced a 7% correction in the past 24 hours due to overbought conditions and is trading at $1.1 at the time of writing.

CRV’s daily trading volume, however, increased by 20% to $635 million, suggesting increased interest from investors.

Thanks to the price rally, CRV’s open interest reached an all-time high of $262 million, according to CEX.IO analysts. “This surge can be traced back to a decision made a month ago: the launch of Savings crvUSD (scrvUSD),” Illia Otychenko, lead analyst at CEX.IO told crypto.news.

Curve Finance is a decentralized exchange and automated market maker for trading Ethereum-based stablecoins and altcoins.

The decentralized autonomous organization voted to create scrvUSD, a yield-bearing stablecoin that allows users to earn rewards simply by holding the token, in early November. The stablecoin’s main purpose is to “scale crvUSD” and compete with Sky’s sDAI and Ethena’s sUSDe.

Moreover, scrvUSD allows users to generate revenue through Curve Finance’s lending and staking strategies — currently offering a 13% annual percentage rate — per the CEX.IO analysis.

The stablecoin has already reached a $20 million market cap.

Although scrvUSD also aims to stabilize crvUSD interest rates, they remained volatile due to high leverage demand. For example, borrowing rates surged to 50% on key markets following the U.S. elections.

“Higher interest rates offer larger revenue for Curve per operation, but they limit new borrows. To address this, Curve DAO increased scrvUSD holders’ revenue share from 10% to 20%, and adjusted the crvUSD yield mechanism, successfully lowering borrowing rates to 20%, and boosting scrvUSD deposits.”

Otychenko said.

The launch of scrvUSD brought increased demand for the CRV token as well. Otychenko points out that the rising CRV Relative Strength Index puts the token in the overbought zone as it rose above the 75 mark on Dec. 4. 

“On the weekly chart, the RSI is in the overbought zone, suggesting a pause is likely before further upward movement,” Otychenko added.

The analyst expects a long-term surge for the CRV price due to its growing ecosystem. However, the asset would likely face a “notable” correction before recording another rally.