Here’s Why Railgun (RAIL) is up Over 260% Today

RAIL, the native token of the privacy-focused DeFi protocol Railgun, has surged sharply within the past 24 hours. The token’s over 260% increase has captured significant attention across the crypto market. 

According to data from CoinGecko, RAIL jumped from $1.2 to a new all-time high price of $4.6, representing a nearly 270% increase in 24 hours. The token’s market capitalization has also swelled to over $260 million.

Notably, the token has also recorded a spike in its trading volumes. At the time of writing, RAIL’s trading volume was sitting at over $17 million. 

Why Is RAIL Surging?

RAIL’s price spike was mainly catalyzed by a major new product that the Railgun team is developing. In a recent interview, Railgun’s co-founder Alan Scott mentioned that the project has developed a prototype for a multi-signature wallet for Ethereum.

Scott pointed out that the product’s development was in response to Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin’s request for enhanced privacy on the network. The new feature will allow teams, DAOs, or custodial groups to manage private crypto assets collaboratively, without revealing sensitive transaction data. It is designed to combine the trust and shared control of multi-sig security with the full privacy protection of zk-SNARKs, offering users complete privacy. 

Commenting on the development, Scott noted,

“We’re not only the first people to do this in the Ethereum ecosystem, we’re kind of like the only people that can really do it.”

The Railgun team is currently working to build an interface that allows users to create their multi-sig wallets without any coding required. They plan to demo the new wallet feature next month at the DevConnect Argentina conference in Buenos Aires. 

Notably, Buterin has often commented on the importance of privacy protocols like Railgun. In fact, he has on multiple occasions sent ETH through Railgun’s privacy pools. One recent large transfer of 693.9 ETH, worth approximately $1.8 million at the time, triggered considerable market attention. Several market analysts interpreted the transfer as a form of endorsement by Buterin, which increased investor sentiment and sent RAIL surging by over 15%. 

What is Railgun?

Railgun is a privacy-focused smart contract protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain, with support for other EVM-compatible networks. It is designed to allow users to conduct private transactions on public blockchains.

Rather than operating as a standalone chain, Railgun seeks to operate as a privacy layer built directly into the existing DeFi landscape. Thus, users can conduct private transactions on decentralized applications (dApps) without exposing their wallet balances or transaction history. This level of privacy is possible thanks to Railgun’s “privacy pools” architecture and zero-knowledge proofs (zk‑SNARKs). 

Additionally, Railgun also implements a novel system called Private Proofs of Innocence (Private POI). It uses cryptographic proofs to ensure that funds entering the Railgun smart contracts are not from sanctioned addresses, including those involved in hacks.

However, Railgun has faced multiple scrutiny over the years with regard to its alleged connection to several sanctioned wallets. Several blockchain security analysts have claimed that the notorious North Korean Lazarus Group has used Railgun to launder their ill-gotten crypto, particularly after the 2022 Harmony bridge hack. Regardless, Railgun has continued to deny the allegations, calling them “false reporting.” 

The RAIL token serves as the governance token for the protocol. Holders can vote on protocol upgrades and improvements and participate in staking mechanisms that secure the system.

Interest in Privacy Protocols Soars 

RAIL’s surge comes at a time when demand for privacy protocols is accelerating. With crypto mixers like Tornado Cash facing strong regulatory pressure, privacy tools that offer compliance controls are gaining increased attention. 

Over the past few weeks, the broader privacy-coin sector has seen a resurgence. As a result, tokens like Monero, ZCash, and RAIL are recording noticeable price spikes.

The post Here’s Why Railgun (RAIL) is up Over 260% Today appeared first on CoinTab News.