As the bull-goose crypto Bitcoin recovers US$27k at the time of writing, more than a few altcoins, including Kava and Conflux, appear to be gaining some volume and strength as well.

Why? Well, the altcoin market has been fluctuating pretty heavily all year as different “narratives” (e.g. AI, layer 2s, memecoins) take their turn in the spotlight.

But for the purposes of this article at least, we’ll look into Kava and Conflux specifically, individually.

 

Kava – what is it?

What is Kava (KAVA), then? It’s a decentralised finance (DeFi) lending platform that rose to prominence in mid 2020, with a price peak a year later. It’s currently still down about 89% from its all-time high.

It’s ranked #86 by market cap on the CoinGecko list of cryptocurrencies, with a current valuation just shy of US$529 million.

According to the Messari crypto-analysis platform, Kava is also a “fast and secure layer-1 blockchain featuring a unique co-chain architecture that combines the speed and interoperability of the Cosmos SDK with the flexibility and developer support of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).”

Layer 1 blockchain, you say… proof of stake? Yep, much like other PoS chains, in order for holders to earn passive rewards, its native governance and utility token, $KAVA, can be staked by validators or delegated to validator nodes.

 

What’s pushing up the KAVA token?

At the time of writing, KAVA is up about 10% over the past 24 hours, and 48% over the past seven days.

The price rise can be partly attributed to anticipation around an upcoming upgrade of the Kava blockchain mainnet, which is scheduled to take place in a couple of days, on May 17 UTC.

Dubbed “Kava 13”, the upgrade will apparently be a significant step forward in the network’s aim to be an interoperable force between Ethereum and Cosmos. The former is by far the leading blockchain for DeFi, but Cosmos and Kava are growing DeFi networks in their own right.

The upgrade will enhance the “Kava EVM 2.0”, bridging mechanics between Ethereum and Cosmos as well as security and scalability factors.

As Binance’s website, which lists the KAVA token, notes, “Kava aims to become the default DeFi platform by providing stablecoins and decentralised lending against all major crypto assets.”

A couple of days ago, too, Kava pushed forward a proposal to the voting stage that will, if approved, change the inflationary aspect of the project’s tokenomics, permanently putting an end to Kava “emissions” (a token’s inflation schedule) by the end of this year.

 

What is Conflux?

We’ve mentioned Conflux (CFX) in passing before, but essentially this is yet another layer 1 blockchain – a chain on top of which other blockchain/crypto applications can be built.

What gives it a point of difference, however, is that it claims to be the only cryptocurrency/blockchain with approval to operate in China, and has apparently formed hefty, CCP-approved partnerships including with China Telecom to develop a blockchain SIM card.

Conflux is also a hybrid chain that uses elements of both the proof of work and proof of stake consensus/validation mechanisms. The crypto exchange site Bybit gives a detailed breakdown of the project’s technology and functionality, if interested.

The CFX token is currently ranked #75 on CoinGecko, with a US$599m market cap.

 

What’s pushing up the CFX token?

CFX is up more than 11% over the past 24 hours.

The “why” here is slightly harder to ascertain, but this token has certainly been in and out of the limelight this year. And that can be attributed to the the idea, and hope, that China is looking to make something of a re-entry into the cryptocurrency sector.

Whether or not that’s pure hopium at this stage, one thing’s for sure – Hong Kong has certainly been making moves to embrace the crypto industry and its regulators are known to have been in discussions with local HK crypto firms as well as large Chinese banks, regarding the expansion of the sector in its region.

Regarding more specific recent happenings for the Conflux project, however, there was this announcement the other day from major exchange Binance, which sees it now able to facilitate deposits and withdrawals of the mainnet CFX token.

 

Note: the writer of this piece has invested in Bitcoin, Ethereum and some highly speculative altcoins, including a small amount of CFX. He does not own any KAVA. 

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