Story traded at lows of around $2.12 on Monday but has since staged a sharp recovery.
IP rose to above $2.65, with trading volume spiking over 400% to $198 million.
Buyers may ride bullish sentiment to target $3 or higher.
IP, the native token of the Story Protocol, has outperformed top altcoins in the past 24 hours.
At the time of writing, the token’s price had pumped by more than 22% to its highest level since early December 2025.
Other coins seeing notable gains include Monero, Canton and Aerodrome Finance. Ethereum targets $3,500 as price holds key level.
Story is a layer-1 blockchain project focused on tokenizing and making intellectual property programmable for creators in the AI era, leading this pack.
Its gains come amid broader upside moves for privacy-focused altcoins, and the IP price was up amid a more than 400% increase in daily trading volume.
IP price breaks above $2.50 on mega volume
As noted, the Story token has experienced a breakout moment.
But as its price decisively broke above the $2.50 level, buyers did so on a significantly higher 24-hour trading volume.
With bulls breaching $2.10, the asset soared to above $2.65. Data showed trading volume exploded by more than 450% to $198 million.
The surge reflects strong bullish momentum, and IP could extend its upward trajectory toward the $3 mark. Bulls see the level as a psychological barrier and a breakout might allow for new gains.
From a technical perspective, the token trades above the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $2.31, providing solid support for further advances.
If broader top cryptocurrencies flip decisively positive, IP could see additional rally potential.
However, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) on the daily chart stands at 73 and in the overbought zone.
This suggests a potential retreat as profit-taking emerges. Meanwhile, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator shows indecisiveness, with the histogram showing increased weakness.
Story gains as Monero leads top altcoins higher
As the chart below shows, IP has posted impressive gains today.
The fresh bullish wave to highs of $2.65, with the token pumping more than 22% in 24 hours, aligned with notable upticks for several other cryptocurrencies.
Monero (XMR) led privacy coins higher as XMR price hovered near $600 in a strong rally.
$XMR took the throne from $ZEC and is now leading the privacy bull wave, looking really strong, after reaching new All Time Highs! pic.twitter.com/wCzF8781hm
— Rand (@cryptorand) January 12, 2026
As the coin gathered pace, coins that had dumped in recent sessions, including Zcash (ZEC), also rose. The token is looking to ignore developer turmoil to recover and was up 5% to above $410.
Monero and Zcash remain top privacy coins, but with regulatory scrutiny, such as Dubai’s ban, putting the tokens into the spotlight.
