Dash (DASH) emerged in January 2014 as a fork of Litecoin (LTC). Founders Evan Duffield and Kyle Hagan wanted to improve upon Bitcoin in terms of privacy and transaction speed. Short for “digital cash”, Dash provides a global payments network on which transactions take place instantly for less than a cent. Dash’s InstantSend feature means that payments are settled instantly without users having to wait for transactions to be confirmed on the blockchain, while the PrivateSend feature offers optional added privacy through the use of a built-in mixing service.

Dash is one of the older projects in the crypto space and during its long history its price has been through some significant changes. If you want to know why then you’re in the right place. We’ve compiled everything you need to know about the price of DASH — as well as the factors which influence it.

Dash Price History

[guidelink dash] was released on 18 January 2014, and by mid-February it was trading at a price of $0.23. April saw the start of a 2,000% surge which culminated in a peak of $14.29 around the start of June. The price then crashed and by mid-August DASH had fallen to $1.59. For the rest of the year DASH oscillated in the $1.50 to $3.80 range and finished 2014 trading at $1.90.

2015 was less dramatic. After falling to $1.20 in the first month, DASH made gains for the rest of Q1 until it peaked at $5.56 towards the end of March. The rest of the year was spent in consolidation though, and DASH was worth $3.24 by the end of 2015.

In 2016, DASH showed a mostly upward trajectory. After making consistent gains its price had climbed to over $14.50 in August. A 40% pullback followed over the next three months before some fresh growth in December led DASH to finish the year with a price of $11.04 — an almost 220% improvement on 2016’s starting price.

The following year was the most exciting yet for DASH. Prices rose to about ten times the value at the year’s open in the first quarter alone — and the gains didn’t stop there. Further new highs were set over the next few months and by the start of November 2017 DASH had a value of around $275. From there growth accelerated and DASH surged 500% during the next two months until it reached its all-time high of $1,701.66 on 24 December. The last few days of 2017 saw a retracement to $1,016.34, which still represented an increase of almost 9,000% since the start of the year.

Most of those gains were lost in 2018 as the entire year took on a downward trajectory. After setting a series of lower highs and lower lows, DASH ended the year with a value of $77.72 — a loss of more than 90% over the course of the year.

The trend reversed in 2019 and over the first six months DASH climbed to a peak of $211.81. The rally ran out of steam at the end of June though, and DASH spent the rest of the year in decline. By the end of 2019 prices had fallen to $41 — a little over half what they had been at the start of the year.

2020 was fairly volatile — in January DASH jumped to $143.05 after a 50% surge in 24 hours. Prices soon fell, however, and in March DASH bottomed out at $31.19 after a single-day crash of almost 40%. Price had improved to over $100 in August, before a crash at the start of September took it back down to around $60. $100 wasn’t regained until the end of November and DASH ended the year at $99.71.

The first ten days of January 2021 saw DASH rally to $165.43, before February brought even greater gains. Price rose almost 60% on 13 February alone and then peaked at $365.13 on 19 February. Price then pulled back by half and consolidated in March before finding some upward momentum in April. By 10 April 2021, DASH was back up to $280, showing year-to-date gains of 180%.

Analyzing Dash Price History

DASH’s price history can be analyzed with many of the same techniques as stock market analysis. Technical analysis involves looking at the charts to make sense of previous price movements. With DASH, as with many other tradable assets, large price swings are often accompanied by spikes in trading volume, as a large number of users buy or sell their coins on exchanges.

Fundamental analysis, on the other hand, looks at the finances and activities of a company, as well as the state of the wider market and economy. By Q4 of 2020, DASH had received listings at more than 268 exchanges and brokers, and was accepted at more than 4,350 merchants and services, which would appear to be a good sign for the cryptocurrency’s fundamentals.

Broader market trends have also played a role in DASH’s price history. Its surge at the end of 2017 wasn’t unique — the entire crypto market pumped around this time. Bitcoin was in the midst of a major bull run then, and with such strong market dominance, any significant price movement for Bitcoin often impacts other cryptocurrencies.

DASH’s huge single-day drop in March came as economies and borders were closing down around the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The effect of this was felt by the whole cryptocurrency sector and the entire stock market, which experienced the biggest single-day crash since 1987.

The overall price trend of DASH tends to follow what’s known as a boom-and-bust cycle. This is a pattern in which a period of growing excitement leads to a surge in price before doubt and disillusionment set in and result in a crash.

Factors Influencing The Price of Dash (DASH)

A variety of different things can affect the price of DASH, including project news and developments, the flow of assets on exchanges, public sentiment, and emerging trends in the wider cryptocurrency and global economies.

DASH has a capped max supply of about 18.9 million DASH, although 10% of block rewards go to the DASH treasury, and if they don’t allocate these tokens, the actual max supply would be lower. The price of DASH is therefore influenced by its scarcity, like Bitcoin.

One source of demand for DASH is masternodes. These are special nodes which operate the second layer of the DASH blockchain, and a node must hold at least 1,000 DASH as collateral to become a masternode. The benefits of being a masternode include having the final decision on proposed changes to the Dash network and earning 45% of the DASH minted at each block. These rewards could incentivize more people to buy DASH in order to become masternodes, and it seems likely that the more masternodes there are, the more DASH will be worth.

It also seems probable that the value of DASH will be correlated with the level of adoption of the Dash payment network. The more businesses join the network, the more people will want to use it. Dash will soon be launching the DashPay Wallet which will improve user experience and could therefore drive adoption.

Live Dash Value and Market Cap

The live price of DASH varies from moment to moment as it’s dictated by the balance of buyers and sellers on exchanges, which is in constant flux. 

Given DASH’s volatility, its live price can change by a large amount in a very short space of time. The market cap of DASH is equal to the price of DASH multiplied by the number of DASH in circulation.

Dash Price FAQ

How is the price of DASH calculated?

DASH’s price at any given time is decided by the balance of supply and demand on exchanges. When more people are buying DASH than selling it, the price goes up, and when more are selling than buying, the price goes down.

Why is the price of DASH different on different cryptocurrency exchanges?

DASH’s price is based purely on trading as there is no standard global DASH price, so no one knows what it is “supposed” to cost. The trading volume and liquidity is different for each exchange and those differences are what affect the price.

When will DASH reach its max supply?

New tokens are mined through Dash’s proof-of-work algorithm, and the emission rate decreases by approximately 7% every 210,240 blocks (about 383 days). At this rate, the max supply is expected to be reached by the year 2300.

What will DASH be worth in the future?

It’s impossible to make price predictions with any kind of certainty as a whole host of different things could impact DASH’s future value. However, if the DashPay Wallet is successfully rolled out and adoption of the Dash payment network grows, it seems likely that DASH will increase in value.

Conclusion

The price of DASH has been through some significant changes during its long history, from being worth less than $1 in its early days to reaching over $1,700 at the end of 2017. The journey wasn’t smooth, however, as DASH’s volatility has led to many surges and crashes.

A number of different factors have played a role in determining the price of DASH, including demand from masternodes, the expansion of the Dash payment network, and trends in the rest of the crypto market and wider economy. Its current valuation is derived from the balance of supply and demand in the markets and constantly changes.

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