It is important we take a closer look at what BitShares represents before one can determine whether or not there is any reason for a value increase. BitShares can best be described as a decentralized platform with both exchange and fintech capabilities. It is designed to be incredibly fast, flexible, scalable, and efficient. One could argue BitShares aims to be the protocol Bitcoin could have been, were it not bogged down by technological limitations right now.
The BitShares protocol allows users to create and trade different assets against any other asset they want. There are stable assets, called smartcoins, and the digitized assets referred to as user-issued assets. It is an intriguing project that will eventually allow for the project to be autonomously funded and create new job opportunities automatically. This has been the situation BitShares has been in for quite some time now.
As one would come to expect, the BitShares platform comes with its own native token/asset, called BTS. There is a total supply of 2,602,390,000 BTS in circulation right now, a number that will not be changed in the foreseeable future. The main purpose of BTS is to launch decentralized autonomous companies, which can produce profits and distribute said profits to shareholders. The tokens also allow users to issue their own assets on the BitShares protocol. It is the native “currency” of this entire ecosystem, so to speak.
However, the BTS asset can also be traded freely across exchanges. This allows speculators to push the price per BTS up or down, regardless of news or inherent value. Right now, there is a strong push upward for BTS, even though there is no news or announcement worrying an increase in value whatsoever. More specifically, the value per BTC has always been remarkable stable around the US$0.01 mark. Right owe, every BTS is valued at over US$0.35, for some unknown reason. The value surge picked up steam around June 10 , although nothing special happened in that period.
It is certainly possible people are only now realizing the potential this protocol holds. Then again, it is equally possible this is nothing more than a long-term pump-and-dump scheme. No one is doubting BitShares offers some interesting technology, but a price surge such as this cannot be considered “normal” under any circumstance. Then again, there are very few normal things about cryptocurrency in general these days.