Dash’s value has surged past $1,500, bringing the total available monthly budget past $10 million.

The past week has seen considerable movement in the price of Dash. Over the weekend, the price jumped from the $900 range to the high $1,100s range, making Dash the second cryptocurrency to pass the $1,000 mark after starting at below $1. Then Wednesday the price experienced another jump, rising past $1,500 over the course of just a few hours. Price at time of writing is $1,575.

Dash’s monthly budget is past $10 million, masternode owners are millionaires

Notably the price surge has enabled the monthly available treasury to be spent on growing the Dash ecosystem to pass $10 million in value. At present price this would equal around $120 million annually. This amount can fund a significant ecosystem with developers, news services, business integration teams, and more all over the world. Notably, last budget cycle the Dash treasury spent around $4 million, yet without a single proposal from Dash Core, Dash Force, or Dash Labs, the three major organizations in the Dash network, indicating a decentralized and self-running ecosystem.

The value, and cost of entry, to a single Dash masternode has also risen considerably. In order to run a masternode a collateral of 1,000 Dash must be maintained, which at present prices costs over $1.5 million, and which presently pays out nearly $10,000 monthly to maintain the node. This makes any attempt to cause an undue influence in the network prohibitively expensive, as it would require billions to amass any meaningful number of nodes. Additionally, at over 5,100 masternodes presently in existence, two thirds of the coin supply is already spoken for, meaning even a highly motivated and heavily financed attacker could not acquire enough nodes to take over the network.

A strong 2018 planned for Dash

Several key milestones are planned for Dash next year, which could continue its rise even further. The Alt Thirty Six payment processor is set for release in the new year, bringing a powerful business solution with exclusive Dash integration initially targeted at the legal cannabis industry. The number of Dash-accepting merchants is significantly rising, currently at 558 worldwide according to DiscoverDash’s listing. Finally, the Evolution platform, which will provide the groundwork for a seamless and user-friendly experience protocol-level, is set to see its initial stages released next summer.