Maker price surges 7% amid $1.35 million audit contest

• Maker price rose more than 7% to lead altcoin gainers alongside Kaspa and Injective.
• Gains for MKR came as new upside momentum emerged amid a massive $1.35 million Endgame audit contest.
• MakerDAO said in a recent post that blockchain security platform Sherlock will the host the bug hunt contest from July 8 to August 5, 2024.

Maker (MKR) price is up on the day as the cryptocurrency alongside Kaspa (KAS) and Injective (INJ) post top gains among the leading 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

CoinMarketCap data shows the MakerDAO governance token’s price has increased 7% in the past 24 hours.

On Wednesday, MKR traded to lows of $2,335. However, a significant uptick in buying pressure has seen it surge past the resistance at $2,400 to reach intraday highs of $2,561 on Thursday morning.

As of writing, Maker has a 24-hour trading volume of over $116 million, with this rising 47% in this period. Meanwhile, the market cap has increased 7% to over $2.3 billion.

Why is MKR price surging today?

While most of the altcoin market continues to battle downside pressure, Maker appears to have benefited from a new dose of optimism after a major announcement by MakerDAO on Tuesday.

That had to do with the official launch of the Endgame audit contest, a bug-finding contest that will see participants earn from a massive $1.35 million rewards pot. In the announcement, MakerDAO said the contest will be on blockchain security platform Sherlock.

“DeFi builders are invited to participate in the largest bug-finding contest in the space, with a total of 1,350,000 DAI in rewards,” the Maker team said in a post on X.

Sherlock calls this “the biggest audit contest ever”.

According to MakerDAO, the contest targets a community collaboration towards enhancing the blockchain platform’s security for Endgame products ahead of Maker’s Launch Season. The bug-hunt will run from July 8 to August 5, 2024.

MKR reached its all-time high price of $6,292 in May 2021.