Horizen price spiked more than 60% in 24 hours as the cryptocurrency market looked to recover from a massive dump that saw top altcoins crash to key support levels.

On Dec. 20, as Bitcoin (BTC) traded to above $97k and Ethereum (ETH) bulls pushed above $3,400, the price of Horizen (ZEN) surged to highs of $26.34. The cryptocurrency, which rallied sharply following a recent Grayscale Investments announcement, reached a multi-year high and ranked among the top gainers in the 500 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.

ZEN traded at lows of $14.55 on Dec. 19. However, despite the broader crypto crash and the staggering $1.4 billion liquidations, the altcoin’s price hovered above $26 in early trading during the U.S. trading session.

According to crypto.news price data, Horizen recorded a 24-hour trading volume of over $397 million, with its market cap exceeding $407 million. These metrics reflected increases of 294% and 62%, respectively, in the past 24 hours. While ZEN has surged nearly 200% over the past month, its current levels are still more than 84% below the all-time high of $168 reached in May 2021.

If the broader crypto market continues to rebound, ZEN bulls may aim for March 2022 highs near $50.

The positive momentum has benefited from Grayscale opening of the Grayscale ZEN Trust to qualified investors. Prices of the altcoin rose as the digital asset manager unveiled the fund to offer exposure to Horizen for qualified investors.

Earlier this month, Horizen’s native token underwent its final halving, which came as the project geared for a key change in its tokenomics. ZEN will not see any further halvings as the new network mechanism enables a declining emission rate.

That’s because Horizen, is shifting from the proof of work mining model that mirrored Bitcoin’s halving cycle to a new proof of stake mechanism in 2025. Horizen’s last halving occurred on Dec. 12, 2024.

New tokenomics for Horizen will come into effect in the first half of 2025.

Binance’s updated leverage and margin tiers offer improved trading options for select trading pairs, bringing both potential rewards and risks for crypto traders.

The leverage and margin levels for USDⓈ-M perpetual contracts, including DAR, ME, CAKE, IOTA, LPT, ONE, and ZEN, will be updated by Binance Futures today, with effect from 08:15 UTC on Dec. 19, 2024.

USDⓈ-M stands for USD-Margined Futures, a type of cryptocurrency futures contract offered on platforms like Binance. It refers to stablecoins such as USDT (Tether) or BUSD (BUSD), which are pegged to the US dollar. These contracts are settled in these stablecoins, rather than traditional fiat currency or the underlying crypto asset.

Depending on the contract and position size, the revised leverage tiers will vary from 1x to 75x, enabling traders to fully benefit from their leveraged positions in the crypto market.

Leveraged positions of traders will be impacted by the new maintenance margin rates, which range from 1.00% to 50.00%.

Margin is the total amount of collateral needed to open and sustain a trading position, whereas leverage is the borrowing of funds to increase the size of a position. The possible return increases with leverage, but the chance of loss also goes up.

By adjusting the margin and leverage tiers, Binance Futures continues to give traders more choices to control risk and profit from volatile crypto market movements.

Traders must keep themselves updated with Binance Future trading rules and exercise risk management, particularly when working with high-leverage instruments over several contracts and margin holdings.

Global digital banking firm, PDX Global, plans to launch a live test for PDX Beam, a platform that can convert thousands of cryptocurrencies to fiat and deliver cash transactions in seconds.

PDX Beam is set to become the first ever end-to-end payment transaction process and crypto-to-cash payments platform for merchants and consumers. PDX Global, the developer company, recently finished a round of testing for the app and claimed it is ready for a live public beta test on Dec. 19.

According to the press release received by crypto.news, PDX Beam offers users instant crypto-to-cash settlements directly on the blockchain-based platform, without having to go through traditional intermediaries such as credit cards and banks. Once the app is publicly accessible, users will be able to avoid banking charges and payment delays by using PDX Beam to convert crypto into cash within seconds.

Users simply have to sign up to PDX Beam and link their secure wallet. To make crypto payments in-store or online, the app will convert the user’s crypto funds into local currency after paying the mandatory gas fees for network use on the relevant blockchain. The free app claims the user does not need to have a “special exchange account” to make the purchase.

On the other hand, merchants will be able to accept crypto funds from consumers without needing to own a crypto account or even touching the crypto side of the transaction. This is because PDX Beam is integrated with point-of-sale systems and business software. The app is also gearing up to facilitate physical and online purchases for marketplace platforms like Clover and Shopify.

By bridging the gap between crypto and traditional currencies, the platform further expands on the potential of crypto as a form of payment for every day use.

After five years of development, recent testing results revealed that the app was capable of performing live end-to-end payment transactions with no issues in 30 seconds or less. The team expects the platform to be able to complete transactions in 15 seconds or less by the time the software is launched.

CEO of PDX Global, Shane Rodgers, stated that most merchants still believe that they must allocate a significant amount of funds into crypto payment systems in order to start accepting crypto from customers. With PDX Beam, merchants can simply integrate the app into their systems using any POS Terminal equipped with an API or custom code for QR scanning without additional costs to accept crypto payments.

“Transactions can be settled either in same day ACH [Automated Clearing House] or real-time instant settlement at the merchant’s option, reducing fees to a fraction of the transaction cost of a debit or credit card,” said Rodgers.

According to a recent survey by Deloitte, around 85% of merchants in the U.S. expect crypto will be used for daily payments in the few years ahead. By 2022, approximately 2,352 US businesses have already accepted Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment option.