Algorand is outperforming after a 15% jump. Here’s why

Key receivers

Algorand jumped 15% after announcing the appointment of Michele Quintagli as its new chief marketing officer. Quintaglie has experience at some of the world's largest companies, including Visa, Fidelity and Raytheon Technologies. Thanks to its partnership with major soccer federation FIFA, Algorand is increasingly interested in leading the way for the World Cup in November.

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Algorund is one of the cryptocurrencies in the green after the Federal Reserve raised US interest rates by 75 basis points yesterday.

Algorand opposes the market

Algorand has hired a new CMO.

The company behind the self-proclaimed “sustainable blockchain” announced Wednesday that it has hired Michele Quintaglia as its new chief marketing officer. Kuntagli joins Algorand's new interim CEO, Sean Ford, after the company's previous CEO, Steven Kokinos, stepped down in July.

Quintaglie has experience at some of the world's largest companies, including head of communications at both Visa and Fidelity, as well as global media relations and public affairs heads at Raytheon Technology.

Algorand seems to have responded well to Kuntagli's appointment. Since the news broke yesterday, the ALGO token has jumped over 15%. Cryptocurrencies are among those in the green after the market reacted to the Federal Reserve's 75 basis point interest rate hike.

However, with today's positive price action, Algorand is still short of the top of the bull market. ALGO reached a short-term high of $2.98 in November 2021 but has lost much of its value in 2022 as crypto and equities continue to face interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve and worsening macroeconomic conditions.

Another Tailwind

Yesterday's appointment of a new chief marketing officer is not the first tailwind for Algorand in recent months.

In May, Algorand formed a partnership with the world's premier soccer federation, FIFA. The ALGO token has seen a surge after FIFA announced that Algorand will be the organization's official blockchain platform.

Since the FIFA partnership, Algorand has received a lot of interest from investors and football fans. Earlier this month, FIFA announced “FIFA + Collect”, a new platform that allows football fans to access exclusive digital collections from FIFA World Cup matches. In a recent partnership, FIFA+ Collect uses the Algorand blockchain to verify ownership. The FIFA+ Collect Marketplace went live on Thursday, which contributed to ALGO's growth alongside the hiring announcement.

Elsewhere, other soccer-focused crypto offerings are also outpacing the broader market. Chiles, a blockchain that allows users to give fan tokens to major European football clubs, saw its CHZ token in the lead-up to the FIFA World Cup in November. CHZ is up more than 183% from June lows, and fan tokens for clubs such as FC Barcelona and Manchester City have also made significant gains.

It is not yet clear whether Algorand will continue to benefit as the World Cup approaches. With such an unstable economic backdrop, assets such as cryptocurrencies occupy the lower end of the risk curve and become more vulnerable in the event of an economic downturn. Still, Algorand appears to be building a solid foundation by bringing in top talent and forming major partnerships. As such, the crypto market may be well positioned to recover in the future.

Disclosure: The author owns ETH, BTC and many other cryptocurrencies at the time of writing this piece.

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