VeChain charts 23% weekly growth as Chinese officials talk usage post-epidemic

The price of VeChain (VET) extended its rally on Wednesday, building off a solid week of gains following discussions with Chinese government officials centered on a post-epidemic health response. 

VeChain rose 2% on Wednesday to reach $0.011669, according to CoinMarketCap. Over the past seven days, the supply-chain management cryptocurrency is up over 23%. Only two other top-30 coins -- NEM (XEM) and Chainlink (LINK) -- have outperformed VET over the past seven days.

At current values, VeChain has a market capitalization of $751 million.

The cryptocurrency’s uptrend appears to have coincided with a meeting of high-ranking officials from China’s Hubei Province, VeChain and DNV GL Global, a global risk management firm, early last week.

As reported by China-based Chainnews, the meeting centered on the use of digital tools to revamp the public health system in the wake of COVID-19. Supply-chain logistics, especially those that enable import traceability and certification, will be a critical component of the post-crisis response.

DNV GL proposed a four-pronged approach to public health management in the wake of the epidemic, including an “internationally leading blockchain-based self-risk management” platform.

In an accompanying report, DNV GL senior vice president Kang Wenyu said the “prevention and control of epidemics” requires a coordinated approach to health management. He said:

“Standardized and digital management tools can efficiently establish a complete public health system.”

Wenyu touted VeChain as a strong candidate for improving existing models:

"The new environment requires an innovative management model. VeChain's blockchain technology can ensure the transparency, security, and credibility of all critical information, increase the cost of data fraud to infinitely high, and minimize the cost of supervision.”

Launched in 2015 by Sunny Lu, VeChain is widely regarded as the leading enterprise supply chain management platform leveraging blockchain technology. The platform is backed by the Chinese government and has even been promoted by state media.

Possibly as a natural extension of its close ties with Beijing, VeChain is not a fully decentralized platform. This is by design, as its developers sought to integrate features from both decentralized and centralized finance.