DeFi Protocol Ankr's Token Surged 73% on Microsoft and Tencent Partnerships

Liquid staking token Ankr (ANKR) continues to trade 73% higher than Tuesday's open after it announced partnerships with technology giants Microsoft and Tencent.

The initial Microsoft announcement, under which the two companies offer support to enterprises looking to use blockchain technology, sent price surging to nearly 6 cents from a low of 3 cents.

China-based Tencent followed up by announcing that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ankr to develop a full suite of of blockchain API services.

ANKR is the native token of the decentralized finance protocol of the same name, which has about $163 million in total value locked (TVL), according to DeFiLlama. Trading volume for the ANKR token across all exchanges eclipsed $1.5 billion over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data.

The emergence of liquid staking tokens and derivatives as a bullish asset class was spurred by regulatory action against exchanges offering traditional staking, with Kraken immediately shutting all staking products in the U.S. and paying a $30 million fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Liquid staking derivatives, which remain untouched by regulation, have experienced a flurry of trading activity over the past few weeks as investors attempt to secure a yield on their crypto holdings.

Read more: Ether Liquid Staking Platforms Will Benefit as SEC Actions Likely Fail to Deal DeFi's Knockout Blow