Injective Protocol (INJ/USD) has been rallying almost since the beginning of this year. The token continued to climb, peaking at $6.05, the highest level since April 2022, but thereafter backing off a bit to the current $5.85. It is one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies this year, having soared about 367% from its yearly low.

Injective Protocol is a small but rapidly growing platform in the blockchain industry. Backed by Mark Cuban, the platform aims to be the best platform for developers of decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. Based on the Cosmos blockchain, Injective is used to create multiple popular dApps. Some of its typical ecosystems are Astroport, Frontrunner, Qwerty Exchange, Wavely, and Helix.

Its main difference compared to Ethereum and BNB is its superior speed. It also has low transaction costs and its dApps are interoperable. This means its DeFi applications can access other Layer 1 chains such as Solana and Ethereum.

The main reason why the price of INJ is rising while other cryptocurrencies are fluctuating is due to the ongoing virtual hackathon. This hackathon is a four-week event where users can compete for exciting prizes. It has a global prize of up to $1 million and financing opportunities from well-known venture capital firms.

The overall winner wins $30,000, while second and third place win $20,000 and $10,000, respectively. Judges for the hackathon were developers from platforms such as Astroport, Jump, and Wavely.

There has been other important Injective news. For example, the developers unveiled the launch of liquid staking for INJ through partnering with Stride. To celebrate the milestone, Stride announced that it will airdrop 1000K STRD tokens as Injective stakers.

The other important Injective news was the launch of Cascade, the first interchain Solama SVM rollup. This means that Cascade will help to unlock the $9 billion Solana developer ecosystem for Injective. Injective also recently integrated Pyth, a fast-growing oracle network.