UMA Token Rockets Past 135% Ahead Of Oval Upgrade Launch

The Universal Market Access (UMA) protocol token has spiked by a massive 137% in price today, 19 January, reaching a high of over $4 on the heels of news announcing its much-anticipated Oval upgrade launch.

UMA shines 

As per data available at the time of writing, in the last 24 hours, the UMA token has jumped over 137% to a price of $4.88 following a massive inflow of funds that added $150million to its market capitalization reaching a total of just over $365m – its highest since mid-2022. 

Much of the hype is attributed to the upcoming launch of Oval, a maximal extractable value (MEV) solution that focuses on recovering millions of dollars lost to MEV, especially in the realms of decentralized finance (DeFi) and lending protocols more specifically.

In blockchain, the concept of MEV lets block producers reorganize transactions so that they are more profitable for third parties. Universal Market Access claims that millions of dollars are lost to MEV each year, and the launch of Oval is planning to recover these losses.

Another major driver behind the surge is its total value secured (TVS). As per data available from Dune Analytics, the Uma Oracle has seen its TVS reach a record high of almost $750m.

UMA the Oracle

Because blockchain’s somewhat exist within their own ecosystems, they rely on ‘Oracles’ to connect blockchain networks with real-world data and events that happen outside a blockchain’s native environment.

Initially, the project focused on synthetic assets as an Ethereum-based protocol, but its primary function is now being an 'Optimistic Oracle' for bridging and verifying data sources to decentralized applications (dApps).

Uma offers an ecosystem where users can access the world of tokenized real-world assets and is leveraged across a multitude of Web3 applications including cross-chain bridges and prediction markets.

Index Coop DAO boosts TVS

Another contributing factor to this recent success was the announcement of the latest company to join Uma’s Optimistic Oracl, Index Cooperative. 

Initially launched as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in 2020, Index Coop has gone on to become an upcoming favorite in the realms of DeFi as it tracks, creates, and maintains structured DeFi products.

The Index Protocol possesses a rich suite of products such as sector indexes like the Metaverse Index (MVI) and DeFi Pulse Index (DPI), as well as offering yield generation, leveraged and inverse products, and much more.

More specifically, Index Coop is leveraging Uma’s Optimistic Oracle to “validate and enforce rules for rebalancing index tokens.”

Essentially, Index Coop believes this will make their products more transparent and efficient, with Uma’s technology being a “better alternative to external methodologists and legacy DeFi infrastructure.”