The concerns voiced about the consensus mechanisms of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have played a part in the sideways price action both assets have seen over the past two months, opening the door for other competing projects to gain attention. 

One project that managed to overcome the sideways action in the market and rally to a new record high on July 10 is Constellation (DAG), a protocol that utilizes a directed acyclic graph architecture to achieve a consensus that is theoretically capable of infinite scaling.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of DAG rallied 353% from a low of $0.037 on June 22 to a new record high at $0.17 on July 10.

DAG/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Three reasons for the strong showing from DAG include the release of a functioning decentralized exchange, an expanding list of global partners who utilize the Constellation network to manage data and the network’s ability to offer low-cost, highly scalable transactions.

DeFi launch brings yield to stakers

The recently launched Lattice Exchange (LTX) is an automated market maker-based decentralized exchange (DEX) that utilizes Constellation’s Hypergraph network to offer a “near-zero fee and horizontally scalable decentralized network.”

In the path few months, the project has added yield farming for LTX token via liquidity provision on Uniswap or staking the token directly on the Lattice Exchange for a calculated APY of 155%.

DAG holders can also participate in the network by staking tokens on a state channel to help increase the network’s transaction per second (TPS) capability, or by using DAG tokens to run a node on Constellation’s Hypergraph Protocol in order to validate data and transactions and receive rewards paid in DAG.

Partnerships highlight Constellation's real-world application

Constellation’s growing list of ecosystem partners is another sign of the project's strong fundamentals.  

Constellation ecosystem partners. Source: Constellation Network

Notable business partnerships include Amazon Web Services and the United States Airforce and the project has also established sector-related partnerships with Chainlink (LINK) and KuCoin exchange.

The announced partnership with Liechtenstein Cryptoassets Exchange (LCX) was also a significant development for the Constellation ecosystem as the exchange agreed to support the listing of DAG along with future tokens created using the Constellation Network’s L_0 Token Standard.

Faster transactions, lower costs

Recently, Bitcoin and Ethereum have fallen under increased scrutiny for their environmental costs and high transaction fees. This led investors and developers to shift their attention to projects like Solana and layer-2 solutions which offer faster transaction speeds.

Just a few months ago, traders and blockchain projects were crippled by high gas fees on the Ethereum network, and this means that any project that offers secure, low fee transactions with a competitive TPS has the opportunity to thrive.

The new 'Stargazer' wallet interfaces with Lattice and it supports zero-fee person-to-person transactions on the network.

DeFi platform comparison. Source: Twitter

As the cryptocurrency community prepares for the upcoming London hard fork on Ethereum, the fate of competing layer-one and layer-two solutions remains up in the air as users wait to see if the upgrade leads to a significant reduction in fees. If the situation doesn’t noticeably improve, strengthening fundamentals and the possibility of filling a growing demand niche could bode well for DAG price in the future.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.