MKR surges 9% amid MakerDAO’s $1.35m audit contest

MKR, the native token of the Maker protocol, is up 9%, making it one of the top gainers among the top 100 cryptocurrencies.

At the time of writing, MKR was trading at $2,522 and daily trading volume increased by 23% to $107 million. The token’s market cap also increased by 8%, reaching $2.34 billion, ranking it as the 39th largest crypto asset, according to CoinMarketCap data.

MKR 24-hour price chart | Source: CoinMarketCap

The latest surge in the MKR token follows a June 25 post by MakerDAO, developer of a DeFi lending protocol and stablecoin DAI, announcing a $1.35 million audit challenge, the largest of its kind.

Announcement of the official Endgame control competition held on @sherlockdefi.

DeFi developers are invited to participate in the largest bug-finding competition in the space, with a total prize of 1,350,000 DAI, scheduled to take place from July 8 to August 5, 2024.

This is a unique… pic.twitter.com/XWoc5KNbYb

— Producer (@MakerDAO) June 25, 2024

The audit competition will be hosted on the Sherlock Platform, the leading provider of audit competitions on Web3.

The $1.35 million Sherlock audit competition is a key part of MakerDAO’s Launch Season, the first phase of Endgame scheduled for later this summer.

Endgame represents the final development phase in MakerDAO’s long-term strategy. It aims to renew governance to establish a self-sustaining equilibrium known as the Endgame State.

MakerDAO co-founder Rune Christensen summarized the importance of the Endgame launch, stating that “rock-solid security has always been a priority for MakerDAO.”

He added that this has become one of the defining characteristics of the project. As MakerDAO heads toward Endgame, partnering with Sherlock to “create a program to do stress testing on the system” was a logical next step.

The open bug-finding competition aims to bring together leading security experts and emerging researchers to quickly identify vulnerabilities.

Scheduled from July 8 to August 5, 2024, the competition aims to leverage the expertise of the global security community to rigorously test the codebase before launch.

Participants will have four weeks to review every line of the code base.

Jack Sanford, co-founder of Sherlock, stated that “nothing demonstrates MakerDAO’s unwavering commitment to security” like launching the largest audit competition in history.

He noted that Sherlock has recruited some of the world’s best security experts for this competition and also expects strong performances from promising participants.

In 2024, Sherlock conducted over 70 audit competitions with major Layer-1 and Layer-2 networks.

Leading up to the competition, the week of July 1 will feature educational content, including tips and insights from leading MakerDAO bug hunters and a code walkthrough from the MakerDAO team and crypto insiders.

Another potential reason for the increase in the Maker protocol could be significant whale purchasing activity, as reported by on-chain analytics platform iCrypto.

A whale with a wallet named “thiswillmakeyouloveagain” bought 37.35 MKR ($94,562) in the price range of $2,521 – $2,526 in three hours. The wallet currently holds 452.76 MKR, worth around $1.15 million.

Similarly, another whale with a wallet named “twofoldcap.eth” purchased 66.55 MKR ($165,000) at the price of $2,447. It currently holds 100.81 MKR ($256,860).

Meanwhile, according to many analysts, MKR has formed a falling wedge formation in the last 12-hour time frame, indicating a potential breakout.