Helium up 14% in last 24 hours, defying broader market slump

HNT, the native token of the Helium network, is leading the surge among the top 100 cryptocurrencies today, outperforming other altcoins that are mostly in decline.

On Aug. 27, the price of Helium (HNT) soared 14% to $7.17, while the crypto asset’s market cap surpassed the $1.6 billion mark. Following the price surge, HNT’s daily trading volume increased by 160%, reaching $31 million.

The latest jump in HNT’s price comes as a community call is set for Aug. 28 at 16 UTC to provide updates and debates on the Helium Network. The monthly event brings together developers, hotspot owners, and community members to discuss protocol governance and other Helium ecosystem-related concerns.

The call will take place on Helium’s discord channel.

Recent talks in the crypto space have focused on Helium‘s potential to transform wireless infrastructure. Traditionally, large carriers had to build more cell towers to increase coverage, which required a significant capital expenditure. Helium, on the other hand, provides a novel technique for increasing wireless coverage through a decentralized network of mobile nodes.

The network is apparently in contact with two big US carriers who are testing offloading their traffic to the MOBILE network. Carrier 1 has around 185,000 customers, and Carrier 2 has over 122,000 users taking part in the trial.

If effective, the carriers might save money and provide greater coverage, whilst Helium would gain from increased traffic and funds flowing to hotspot providers.

According to its statistics page, Helium MOBILE has about 20,000 active hotspots, while its IoT solution has 360,000 locations, and the figures are growing.

Coinglass data shows that the HNT total open interest has jumped by 65% to $6.71, showing a rise in trader interest in the altcoin, thus suggesting that new money is supporting the upward price rally.

Data from the market intelligence platform also shows that the total funding rates aggregated by HNT are hovering at 0.0049%, indicating traders’ bullishness on WIF’s price hike.

The Relative Strength Index is currently at 58.82, suggesting that there might be room for the price to go up before it’s considered overvalued. The Stochastic RSI, another indicator, also shows that Helium is underbought at the moment.

Both indicators suggest that HNT’s price might still see a significant rally before it reaches an overbought zone upon which the token might face a reversal.