The cryptocurrency market is a sea of green this morning, with 90% of the Top 100 cryptocurrencies posting 24-hour gains at press time, according to CoinMarketCap. While most saw gains of 10% or less, there are several standouts that saw gains of more than 40%.

For much of July and August, me checking the cryptocurrency markets each morning has been a lot like a little kid watching a horror movie. I sit down at the computer, pull up the coin listings, and then peek through my fingers with squinty eyes, hoping to avoid the stomach-churning impact of yet another day of red as far as my mouse can scroll.

So you can imagine my relief this morning when I saw that 90% of the cryptocurrencies in CoinMarketCap’s Top 100 had posted gains over the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin: $6,514.63 ( +1.76% )

$6,514.63 ( ) Ethereum: $298.25 ( +2.07% )

$298.25 ( ) XRP: $0.316881 ( +7.97% )

$0.316881 ( ) Bitcoin Cash: $545.50 ( +3.43% )

$545.50 ( ) EOS: $4.91 ( +4.32% )

Many cryptocurrencies saw gains of 5, 10, even 15% or more, and a few standouts saw gains of more than 40%!

Not Just Green – Super Green!

Full disclosure time – I don’t own any of the cryptocurrencies I am about to discuss (more’s the pity) but given the extreme volatility of the current crypto market, any time a cryptocurrency legitimately performs well, it is cause for celebration. While several tokens saw extraordinary gains overnight, for this article I am focusing on those with market caps of $200 million or more.

So without further ado, here are three cryptocurrencies that have posted 40% or higher gains over the past 24 hours:

Nano (NANO)

Market Cap: $230,105,832

24-Hour Change: +40.36%

Nano – formerly RaiBlocks – is a low latency payment platform that allows for instant transactions with zero fees. Its speed and low energy consumption make it a good option for those looking for alternatives to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for P2P transactions.

At this time yesterday, NANO was trading at $1.22. Now, just 24 hours later, it is trading at $1.83 – a gain of 50%! As far as what could be contributing to the price jump, there are a couple of possibilities. First, it was just announced this morning that NANO is now accepted at Bitcoin Superstore. For those who are unfamiliar with it, Bitcoin Superstore enables customers to purchase goods and services from just about any online retailer and pay with cryptocurrency. Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Ethereum, Litecoin, XRP, Tron, and now NANO are currently accepted

Another positive factor is that NANO has begun stress testing v.15 of its beta platform and so far, things have been going swimmingly. NANO noted on Twitter that the platform was “humming along” at 200 TPS “without breaking a sweat.” A much larger stress test is planned for tomorrow morning beginning at 10 am EST. It will be interesting to see just how well the platform handles the increased transaction levels and whether or not it has any further impact on price.

Ontology (ONT)

Market Cap: $310,579,390

24-Hour Change: +40.82%

Launched last year, Ontology is a high-performance blockchain and “distributed trust collaboration platform” that enables customers to easily create their own distributed services via custom blockchains. These blockchains are robust, scalable, and can integrate other existing public blockchains as well as traditional information systems.

Yesterday morning, ONT was trading at $1.46 and, overnight, it climbed more than 40% to its current price of $2.05. As far as factors driving the sudden price increase, there are a few that come to mind.

It was announced on Wednesday that Bollywood streaming service Spuul was partnering with Ontology and would be building its new dApp – Spokkz – on the Ontology mainnet. The platform has also launched v.1.0.2 of its mainnet and will be hosting an exclusive invitation-only corporate launch event in Seoul, Korea tomorrow. Both events are generating plenty of buzz, which is undoubtedly impacting price.

VeChain (VET)

Market Cap: $834,685,062

24-Hour Change: +52.10%

VeChain is a decentralized platform that uses blockchain technology and smart contracts to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and transparency of supply chain management. The platform’s native token, VET, is the fuel (gas) required to send transactions and execute smart contracts.

At roughly 9:30 am EST yesterday, VET was trading at $0.009955. Just 24 short hours later, the price has climbed to $0.015142 – an increase of more than 52%!

So why the sudden spike? Last month saw the successful launch of VeChain’s mainnet and subsequent token swap from its prior Ethereum-based VEN token to its native VET token. KuCoin announced yesterday that it had reopened VET deposits and withdrawals following the swap, but with several larger exchanges already supporting VET, it is unlikely that this event alone caused the spike.

What is likely a far more significant factor is that, in anticipation of resuming X Node monitoring on September 1, VeChain announced an “Economic Node Maturity Period Waive Event” yesterday. Normally, for a token holder’s wallet to advance to the next tier of masternode (higher tier = more rewards), in addition to having the required amount of VET in the wallet, they have to undergo a “Node Maturity Period” before the upgrade can take place.

Like its name implies, the Economic Node Maturity Period Waive Event waives that waiting period, so all token holders have to do to qualify is to store at least 1 million VET (the minimum required for a Strength Node) in VeChainThor wallet address by August 20, 2018, 12 pm UTC+8 (midnight EST) and keep it there until the September 1 snapshot.

So the most likely reason for the massive jump in price is that people are snapping up as much VET as they can to take advantage of the ability to upgrade instantly.

Can you think of other reasons these specific cryptocurrencies saw such high gains? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Columbia Pictures/The 5th Element, CoinMarketCap