Off chain data storage company Keep Network's coin, KEEP has plunged 9% today (6 May) to $0.39 as the cryptocurrency market takes a big downswing.

It is now at its lowest level since the mini-crypto quake in late January and 46% off its April high.

Keep merged its network with NuCypher (NU) to create The Threshold Network and a new token T earlier tbis year. It is claimed to be the first on-chain merger between two decentralised networks with a shared goal.

"Both projects are focused on guaranteeing user sovereignty on the public blockchain through the use of threshold cryptography," they said. 

Let’s take a closer look at the latest KEEP price analysis, analyst sentiment and KEEP coin price prediction. What is a plausible target price for the near future? What issues might affect any Keep Network prediction? 

What is Keep Network?

Keep is a network of computers created to store private information from public blockchains via smart contracts. Decentralised applications (dApps) running on public blockchains – for example, Ethereum – collect users’ private data to operate. The Keep Network aims to address the privacy issue: it stores private data out of blockchains in “keeps”.

Keeps represent “containers” that enable smart contracts to use and manage parts of the stored data without exposing it to the public blockchain. Nodes, or computers that maintain keeps – known as “keep providers” – get fractions of private data (also called secrets) via a random beacon protocol (a technique for trustless randomisation).

To operate a keep, nodes stake Keep Network’s native cryptocurrency, KEEP tokens, to be selected by the network. After that, keep providers are rewarded with KEEP tokens for maintaining keeps.

What makes KEEP attractive to potential traders and investors? The KEEP cryptocurrency ensures the safekeeping of private data, which is an ongoing issue amid blockchain privacy concerns. The first network’s application – tBTC – works as a bridge between Bitcoin and Ethereum.

What is Keep Network’s crypto?

KEEP, the Keep Network’s token, is used to perform several functions within the network:

1. Secure the Keep Network’s operation through staking

2. Run the random beacon and ECDSA nodes. The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) nodes are required to run applications on the Keep Network

3. Run tBTC application

4. Earn fees for providing services within the network

The Keep’s mainnet (an independent blockchain running its own network with its own technology and protocol) was launched on 27 April 2020 with one billion KEEP tokens created. The cryptocurrency has a fixed supply, which means there won’t be more than one billion KEEP tokens in circulation.

KEEP token outlook: current price and key drivers

The price line on the KEEP chart peaked at its all-time high of $2.24 just a month after its inception on 22 May 2020. Within the next 10 days, the price of the token had fallen to $0.29, which was a plunge of 87%. After that, KEEP gradually rebounded to $1.51 on 16 August 2020, but didn’t manage to support the level above the $1.00 for a long time and slid down to its all-time low of $0.17 on 17 November 2020.

After that major crash, the cryptocurrency made another attempt to climb up to $1.00, but it failed. Having reached $0.76 on 10 April 2021, the price of KEEP fell to $0.25 and fluctuated within the range of $0.24–0.29 during June–August 2021. It had a mid October peak of $0.934 and briefly popped above $1 in November but from there it experienced a run of declining peaks, the last in the New Year which was below the significant resistance level of $1. At the time of writing (6 May) it is at $0.39 and a long way off its all time closing high in May 2020 of $2.24. 

So, the KEEP token had been severely hammered and this relative low may present a “buy the dip” opportunity for those who believe in the fundamental value behind the project. 

What are the major drivers that could contribute to the KEEP token’s adoption and send the price higher?

• Staking system

Using the staking dashboard, Keep users are motivated to store their tokens within the network and earn rewards in KEEP or ETH. It looks like users’ activity is gaining traction. More than 21.2 million KEEP coins had been earned by stakers – plus $6m in a few months – according to the Network’s official data on 2 December 2020.

However, it is worth mentioning that staking on the Keep Network requires holding a minimum amount of KEEP, which is now equal to 90,000 KEEP, according to Keep’s minimum stake schedule. The good news here is that this number is gradually decreasing.

• Major listing: Coinbase and Binance

All the project’s fundamental values could fade away if it had no trading volume and adoption. This is not the case with the KEEP token, which has been recently added to two of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges: Coinbase and Binance. This was big news as the token became available to the two reputable exchanges with millions of potential traders.

According to the Keep Network’s press release:

“Keep Network (KEEP) is available on Coinbase.com, and in the Coinbase Android and iOS apps. Coinbase customers can now trade, send, receive or store KEEP in most Coinbase-supported regions. Trading for KEEP is also supported on Coinbase Pro. Binance will list Keep Network (KEEP) and open trading for KEEP/BTC, KEEP/BNB, KEEP/BUSD and KEEP/USDT.”

• tBTC: bridging Bitcoin and Ethereum

tBTC is the first app developed on the Keep Network, which serves to bridge Bitcoin and Ethereum. tBTC is considered one of the first decentralised tokenised bitcoins available on the Ethereum network. tBTC is a Bitcoin-backed ERC-20 token, which is pegged to the price of bitcoin 1:1.

One of the major benefits of tokensied bitcoin is that it adds additional liquidity to the Ethereum blockchain. Moreover, it allows bitcoin holders to benefit from DeFi projects.

tBTC represents an alternative approach to building a bridge between the two giant networks. The centralised approach is mainly represented by wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), while the trustless decentralised approach is showcased by tBTC.

Although they have a similar purpose – to connect the two platforms and give bitcoin owners the possibility to invest in dApps – tBTC addresses two crucial blockchain issues: decentralisation and privacy.

The decentralised nature of DeFi projects and dApps presupposes that no central authority has control of the keys (which guarantee the ownership of the funds in a wallet). This is why the centralised approach of bringing bitcoins into Ethereum using custodians (managers who store bitcoins in a smart contract and issue wrapped bitcoin [WBTC] in return) contradicts with this principle.

Keanu: Keep and NuCypher hard merger

The merger of the two blockchain projects, Keep Network and NuCypher, as Threshold has been completed and will draw traders’ attention to the KEEP token. Nicknamed “Keanu”, the merger is an historic milestone for the blockchain industry, as it is the first example where the two competitive crypto projects have merged their protocols into a distributed autonomous organisation (DAO).

Instead of wasting time and effort competing with each other, the two encryption communities decided to interconnect their protocols and use a common blockchain infrastructure. Thus, tBTC v2 will become the first product on the new protocol.

According to Matt Luongo, the CEO of Thesis, the company behind Keep:

“The Keep and NuCypher networks have built similar technology with similar goals. Rather than splitting the market, we think we can achieve more together. Our shared community has spoken – and while both development teams will remain independent, we’ll all be focused on growing a single protocol. A merged network means more useful services and more fees for stakers.”

Keep Network price prediction: analyst sentiment

Commenting on the Keep perspectives, Capital.com analyst Mikhail Karkhalev said: “Keep Network is definitely a potentially promising project, because decentralised data storage (secrets) is a logical continuation of the evolution of the Internet itself.

“First, we had a decentralised network for information exchange and communication (Internet), then came blockchain and decentralised assets (cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, NFT tokens), then decentralised contracts (smart contracts), decentralised exchanges (DEXs), decentralised file-sharing services and finally the Keep Network project.

“It doesn’t mean that Keep will revolutionise the industry or that it is a breakthrough project, but it is a logical part of decentralisation evolution, and someone had to roll out such a project. Right now, it's just a matter of whether the founders can squeeze the most out of it and make it a success. Since this is still a start-up, the risk of investing in this project is high, but as practice shows, investing in promising start-ups can potentially yield high returns”.

Keep Network price predictions: 2022, 2025 & 2030

In their KEEP coin price prediction as of 6 May, algorithm-based forecasting services share mixed views on the KEEP/USD forecast for the next five years. Wallet Investor was bullish in its long-term Keep Network coin price prediction, expecting a price of $0.62 this time next year rising to $1.4 in 2027. 

DigitalCoin had a similar outlook on investing in KEEP tokens. Its KEEP price prediction is for $0.51 in 2022, rising to $0.78 in 2025 and then climbing up to $1.78 by 2030.

Please note that the above Keep Network (KEEP) predictions are generated with the help of deep-learning technologies and technical analysis data. You shouldn’t base your own investment decisions on them. Remember that past performance does not promise future returns. Moreover, you should never invest more funds than you can afford to lose.

We kindly ask traders to create their own trading strategy, considering personal risk tolerance and investing goals. We suggest conducting thorough research before every trade, taking into account both fundamentals and technical analysis, expert opinion and the latest crypto market trends and projections.

Should you invest in Keep Network (KEEP)?

Keep Network represents a decentralised threshold cryptography platform, which runs a trust-minimised bridge tBTC. It helps to interconnect liquidity of the Bitcoin blockchain with the new opportunities offered by the Ethereum network. The project gives bitcoin owners the possibility to invest in dApps and has no centralisation issues faced by its peer WBTC. Will it be enough to gain mainstream adoption? Time will tell.

On 15 February Binance Futures announced it will close all NU and KEEP futures positions, conduct an automatic settlement and cancel all pending orders on NU/USDT and KEEP/USDT futures contracts, and then delist these contracts. It added that when the distribution of T to all eligible users begins it will be at a ratio of 1 NU = 3.26T, and 1 KEEP = 4.78T.

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