NEM’s Catapult send XEM/USD to the stratosphere

While everyone was watching Bitcoin and Ethereum, NEM (XEM) nearly doubled its value and hit $0.1249 high during early Asian hours. The coin now takes the 17th place in the CoinMarkettCap's rating with the current market value of $980 million. At the time of writing, XEM/USD is trading at $0.10, losing ground from the intraday high amid technical correction. It is worth noting that the coin has been growing actively since the beginning of the week and nearly doubled its value since Monday.

What's going on?

While the general improvement of cryptocurrency market sentiments is probably the main driver behind the coin's growth, there are also some local developments that might have created a strong upside momentum for the coin.

Thus, NEM Foundation released its Catapult update, implementing changes that are supposed to make the platform more user-friendly.

"Catapult feature updates on #namespaces and #mosaics have been implemented. These changes will make #NEM more convenient and user-friendly," the company wrote in its official Twitter account.

The announced namespace and mosaic updates should make the system more flexible and functional to meet the needs of corporates. 

"Catapult 1 builds on the achievements of its previous iteration, adding the newest innovations in blockchain technology. Its emphasis lies on scalability, but Catapult will bring overall improvement to the NEM platform. The following changes to namespaces and mosaics will make NEM more convenient and user-friendly", according to the official announcement.

NEM's technical picture

Currently, NEM/XEM is supported by SMA50 weekly at $0.923.  Once it is cleared, the downside is likely to gain traction with the next focus on $0.09 and $0.0844 (the previous month's high). On the upside, we will need to see a sustainable move above $0.12 to get a chance to test SMA200 weekly at $0.1305