Maker (MKR) Takes Latest Climb to Nearly $800

The climb of Maker (MKR) continues despite the lack of a readily apparent explanation. MKR is now just outside the top 20 of all digital assets by market capitalization and has surpassed OmiseGo (OMG) to become the third-largest token. On Tuesday, it was among the biggest climbers of all coins and tokens, seeing another active day of appreciation.

The asset still trades on slim volumes of around $3.3 million, but this has proved enough to lift the price in speculation. As of 6:00 UTC, MKR traded at $775.51, up 13.97% in 24 hours. This time, the price growth seems to be slowing down as MKR stalls around 0.11 BTC.

The price climb comes amid the continuous creation of DAI stablecoins, which are nearing 60 million in number. The model of the Maker DAO is to back DAI with various crypto assets and use MKR to support the value. However, some see this model as confusing and potentially allowing for manipulation of the price.

OasisDex, a relatively obscure decentralized exchange, handles more than 26% of MKR volumes. Prices for MKR also vary, going as high as $802 on IDEX.

Maker may be enjoying better prices due to the upcoming launch of the option for multiple-coin collaterals. Currently, the issuance of DAI is dependent wholly on Ethereum collaterals. In the future, however, users will be able to issue loans on the Maker ecosystem by collateralizing them with various crypto assets.

The fears are that this scheme could allow users to push assets with lesser quality and value and, in effect, “launder” them through the Maker ecosystem. In the first round of expansion, Augur (REP) tokens would become eligible for creating a collateral.

Unlike other crypto loan ecosystems, Maker offers a relatively low interest rate on the loans. However, time will tell if MKR manages to support the growing number of DAI. Maker is also yet to appear on larger exchanges such as Binance, but the new price rise serves to raise the coin’s profile. In the past, MKR has attracted attention after growing above $1,000, peaking at $1,773.92.