# Celo rallies 50% as excitement builds for the upcoming ‘Donut’ hardfork

Decentralized finance (DeFi) has emerged as a transformational force for not just the cryptocurrency market, but for financial markets in general in 2021 thanks to the ease of access and security offered by blockchain-based protocols which operate on smart contracts.

One project that is looking to take the simplicity of DeFi to the next level is Celo (CELO), an open blockchain ecosystem that makes financial tools accessible to anyone with a mobile phone. 

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of CELO rallied 50% from a low of $4.29 late on May 16 to an intraday high at $6.70 on May 18 on the back of a 740% surge in 24-hour trading volume. 

A quick scroll through the project’s twitter feed shows that excitement in the Celo community has been building in recent weeks due to the upcoming ‘Donut’ hardfork that is scheduled for May 19.

Donut is the first of many hardforks that will be planned for Celo, and the first hardfork of the new generation layer-1 Proof-of-Stake networks such as NEAR, Solana, and Polkadot. We are very excited for this new milestone. #DonutIsComing pic.twitter.com/QMeIvesYzw

— Celo (@CeloOrg) May 10, 2021

According to documentation from the team, the hard fork will unlock numerous benefits to Celo users, including increased gas efficiency, improved proof-of-stake interoperability and the ability to connect with many of the Ethereum (ETH) tools available like MetaMask.

Some of the other layer-one protocols that the upgrade will help Celo more smoothly interoperate with include Cosmos (ATOM), NEAR and Solana (SOL).

Bullish momentum for CELO was picked up in the VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, which began to detect a positive outlook for the token on May 13, prior to the recent price rise.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score rose into the green zone on May 13 and remained elevated for two days with a high score of 73 coming on May 14, roughly 67 hours before CELO price rallied 50% higher.

With DeFi still in its infancy and interoperability arising as a go-to feature for any network with long-term aspirations, Celo appears well-positioned to experience further growth and token appreciation thanks to its focus on catering to smartphone users and aiming to make interacting with DeFi globally accessible and user friendly.

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