IOTA price plunges as new governance vote starts

$IOTA price fell for two consecutive days, erasing some of the gains made late last week, as token holders initiated a key governance vote.

$IOTA ($IOTA), a leading distributed ledger network, dropped to $0.30, down by over 53% from its highest level in December. This decline coincided with the ongoing sell-off of other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL).

The decline came as $IOTA token holders began voting on an ambitious growth initiative that includes features like public awareness campaigns and on-chain network metrics. If the proposal passes, the 44.8 million tokens held by Tangle DAO will be unlocked and used to popularize the network.

The voting process, which began recently, will continue for seven days and conclude on Jan. 20. Early data indicates that 97% of voters support the proposal, though this figure could change as voting progresses.

This proposal follows a recent vote by the community on the Rebased proposal. The Rebased upgrade will introduce new features to the $IOTA ecosystem, including parallelized MoveVM and EVM, full decentralization, 50,000 transactions per second, and staking yields of 10% to 15%.

The upgrade is expected to enhance the network’s functionality, enabling developers to build decentralized applications and positioning $IOTA as a competitor to blockchains like Solana and Ethereum.

However, $IOTA’s previous attempts to launch an independent chain have faced challenges. For example, its canary network, Shimmer, has only attracted just $728,000 in total value locked.

$IOTA price analysis

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$IOTA price chart | Source: crypto.news

The daily chart shows that $IOTA peaked at $0.6280 in December but has since dropped to $0.30. Despite the decline, it remains above its 50-day and 100-day Exponential Moving Averages.

The token has also formed a slanted triple-bottom pattern, with the neckline at $0.400. A triple-bottom is generally considered a bullish chart pattern.

While $IOTA is currently in a bearish trend, a rebound to $0.400 remains possible. However, the odds of a rebound would decrease if the price falls below the 50-day EMA and the ascending trendline. In such a scenario, $IOTA could drop to the psychological support level at $0.2500.