A few months ago, the Steem blockchain witnessed one of the most dramatic hardforks, one which remarkably altered the hitherto existing economic model known to Steem. Also, the use of bid bots was almost 'criminalized' with an armour tank of downvotes ready to confront anyone romancing the bid bots.
These new changes, and a few others whose details are already in the public domain, define the "New Steem". The New Steem was, to a large extent, a rescue mission to revive Steem in the summit of the bear market.
Before the advent of the New Steem, however, it is pertinent to mention that thousands of users were already exiting Steem. Just before the last hard fork, we saw a massive exodus of people who were powering down their Steem each week and were either converting it to fiat or other cryptos. The general belief was that Steem was a sinking ship.
As one would naturally expect, the exodus had significant effect on the price of Steem. With each passing day, it would seem, the price of Steem was on a consistent nosedive. Hence, the New Steem was a rescue mission, mission to save the ship of Steem from an imminent wreck.
With curation now in top gear, with bid bots now moribund, with toxic whales now bundled out of the system, it becomes necessary to ask whether the New Steem is resulting to reverse Exodus. Put more lucidly, is the New Steem bringing back those who once left or abandoned Steem?
The question above is timely because of the recent surge in the price of Steem. Since it is a well known fact that Steem is not a token that is generally traded on the exchanges, what then accounts for the overnight increase of over $20m in the market cap of Steem? Does that event mark the beginning of a reverse exodus that will take Steem back to its glory days?
Honestly, it appears too early to tell whether the New Steem has indeed kick-started a reverse exodus into the Steem blockchain. The price of Steem within the next few weeks will, to a great extent, determine whether the reverse exodus has begun. However, the jump of over $20m in market cap within 48 hours should not be taken for granted - we can genuinely speculate that the big players are returning.
Until I come your way again, I wish you a full STEEM ahead.