According to data from CryptoCompare, the price of Verge (XVG) went up over 300% between 19 March 2018 and 15 April 2018. So what explains this very impressive rise in price during this period?

The Crowdfunding Campaign

As you may already know, the Verge (XVG) team announced on 19 March 2018 via their Twitter account and website that they were launching a new crowdfunding campaign:

We're kicking off our first crowdfund of the year, to bring a few important elements to life! Only follow our account or website for official information regarding it! https://t.co/5bmNLM4X2J — vergecurrency (@vergecurrency) March 19, 2018

Two of the main reasons given for this initiative were “Ledger Nano hardware wallet integration and support” and “Partnerships with large scale companies”. Then, on 22 March 2018, they sent out a tweet, showing this snapshot of the donation page of their website, to announce the news that they were working on the “largest cryptocurrency collaboration to hit the market”:

Source Verge Twitter

As you can see, they claimed that this potential partner was a “global organization with a vast network of high traffic sites” and that it would be “utilizing the donations to initiate a massive marketing campaign across multiple networks.” Furthermore, they promised that if they achieved their target goal of 75 million XVG by 26 March 2018, they would release the name of the company on that day.

Then, on 27 March 2018, the Verge team sent out a tweet with an attached video message from Verge’s founder and lead developer Justin Vendettta (also known as “Sunerok” within the Verge community) announcing that Verge had achieved its crowdfunding target, that the deal with the mystery partner had been completed and that the name of this partner would be announced on 16 April 2018.

The Interview With Verge’s Creator

On 31 March 2018, Verge’s creator, “Sunerok”, appeared live on YouTube’s “Larry and Joe Show” to talk about Verge’s partnership deal (without revealing the name of the partner). During this interview, we heard that:

The name of the partner would be revealed in a press release issued by the partner on 17 April 2018 (10:00 EST, 15:00 GMT).

On 16 April 2018, the Verge team would “start doing something special”.

There would be a “massive global marketing campaign.”

This would be the “largest adoption of a non Top 3 coin.”

“It could be the largest adoption of a virtual cryptocurrency ever.”

This would be an “exclusive adoption” and that it would stay exclusive “for a long time.”

History of Verge’s Partnership With TokenPay

We first heard about the involvement of “Sunerok” with TokenPay (TPAY) around 30 November 2017, when TokenPay sent out this tweet to announce that “Sunerok” was the auditor for TokenPay’s blockchain:

Then, on 22 December 2017, we found out for the first time that the Verge and TokenPay teams were working together when TokenPay's twitter account retweeted this tweet by “VergeLife” (one of the key figures in the Verge community):

All this talk about #Verge and #WraithProtocol is exciting. but that's only the beginning. #RSK smart contracts are coming, @tokenpay (most secure #crypto payment platform) will be accepting #XVG. Atomic Swaps are around the corner! 2018 will be as exciting as this week has been! — VergeLife [not giving away ETH] (@VergeLife) December 22, 2017

The key part of this tweet, as far as TokenPay is concerned, is the claim that “@tokenpay … will be accepting #XVG.”

On 27 March 2018, the day that Verge announced it had reached its crowdfunding goal, we heard via another tweet by TokenPay that TokenPay and Verge were strong partners:

We contributed 66,500,000 $XVG to the #VERGE fundraising so we can reach the goal. #VergeFam and #TokenPay are strong partners and we look forward to announcing many $TPAY integrations with @vergecurrency. Special thanks to @binance, @cz_binance & @Teddy_Lin for amazing support. — TokenPay (@tokenpay) March 27, 2018

Two days later, TokenPay indicated via this tweet that there was a potential deal involving TokenPay, Verge, and an unnamed German bank that could result in XVG bank accounts and debit cards:

Currently reviewing the report completed by Ernst & Young on the #TokenPay potential German bank deal. $TPAY and #Verge $XVG accounts and debit cards coming soon? pic.twitter.com/uHwMXhH3ue — TokenPay (@tokenpay) March 29, 2018

On 8th of April 2018, we found out through this tweet that an agreement in principle had been reached with a German bank and that XVG debit cards were likely to become available soon:

#TokenPay CEO @derekcapo meeting in Munich earlier today for breakfast with key stakeholders of the German bank. A deal in principle has been agreed upon by all parties. We will provide full details at closing, but can say that $TPAY and $XVG debit cards are likely coming soon. pic.twitter.com/Xmos479vrC — TokenPay (@tokenpay) April 8, 2018

All of these tweets by TokenPay since November 2017 led many people to speculate that TokenPay was the mystery partner since nobody in the Verge team had confirmed or denied these rumors, but finally on 12 April 2018, the TokenPay CEO confirmed via a tweet from his acount that TokenPay was NOT the mystery partner.

There is a lot of speculation that @tokenpay is the mystery partner for @vergecurrency the answer is no. However, we do have a lot of plans to integrate $XVG into a lot of services we plan to offer soon. The crypto community needs more partnerships to increase adoption of crypto. — Derek Capo (@derekcapo) April 12, 2018

The Most Likely Partner

Since “VergeLife” (@VergeLife on Twitter) seems to be quite close to the Verge development team, based on his retweet of the following tweet, my best guess as to the identity of the mystery partner is “a multi billion dollar payment processing company”:

Hopefully, on Tuesday, 17th of April, at 15:00 GMT (10:00 EST), Verge will reveal the true identity of the mystery partner. We will have an update to this story on the 17th with as many details as possible about this partnership and what it could mean for Verge’s future.