Stacks (STX) Price Predictions Hint at Long-Term Growth Potential Following Nakamoto Upgrade

Stacks, a Bitcoin layer-2 solution, is currently garnering attention as its latest developments hint at substantial long-term growth potential.

output: A Bitcoin (BTC) layer-2 protocol has recorded promising growth following a recent network upgrade.

Stacks (STX), a smart contract platform that operates on Bitcoin, experienced a surge in activity after the Nakamoto upgrade on Oct. 29.

According to data from Artemis, Stacks’ active addresses grew by 97% and transactions rose by 94% following the upgrade.

The Nakamoto upgrade is paving the way for the upcoming release of sBTC, a feature that will enable smart contracts to be anchored on Bitcoin.

This development is expected to open up new possibilities for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications on the Bitcoin network.

According to CEX.IO analysts, Stacks’ active addresses experienced a two-fold increase in 2024, which aligns with the broader growth in Bitcoin’s DeFi space, which saw a 770% surge this year.

However, despite this growth, Stacks has not recorded the highest gains in terms of total value locked (TVL) among Bitcoin L2 protocols.

Other protocols, such as Core, which boasts a faster rate of TVL increase, and new entrants like Merlin Chain and Bitlayer, have made more rapid gains in this aspect.

In terms of price action, analysts at CEX.IO revealed that STX showed promising signs following the Nakamoto upgrade.

The token's value recently increased by 11%, revisiting a resistance level that has held for a month.

According to the analysis, despite some momentum shifts on the four-hour chart that indicate potential near-term corrections to support levels at $0.75 and $0.70, the weekly indicators show more bullish signs.

Notably, STX is down 6.69% over the past 24 hours and is trading at $1.71 at the time of writing.

This correction comes after a recent spike to $1.9 on Oct. 29, and coincides with the broader market retracement.

Stacks is also down 6.79% this October. Meanwhile, both BTC and STX have recently formed a MACD bullish crossover, which is a signal that often precedes extended rallies.

Given STX's high price correlation with BTC, these trends could be significant, especially considering that STX price movements tend to be more pronounced due to its smaller market size.

According to Illia Otychenko, Lead Analyst at CEX.IO, STX price movements are typically five to six times greater than BTC's.

This trend was evident during the first phase of the current bull run, where BTC rose by 172% while STX surged by 739% within the same period.

With Bitcoin projected to reach $200,000 by Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, if STX maintains this pattern, it could experience a substantial uptrend.

If the rally continues, STX would encounter its first major resistance at the $2.033 level.