Microsoft’s collaboration with blockchain gaming startup Enjin has prompted a roughly 50 percent surge in the project's native token over a two-day period.

Enjin coin (ENJ) started to rise sharply from Wednesday afternoon (UTC) as news spread of a rewards scheme from the tech giant that uses Enjin technology and the ethereum blockchain. Known as Azure Heroes, the scheme rewards community members with crypto collectibles (or NFTs) for good deeds, such as mentoring, providing demos, creating content and more.

This is Enjin’s second major news-based rally this year, after Samsung added Enjin's cryptocurrency to the Blockchain Keystore on its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S10, in March.

At the time, prices rose by more than 70 percent on rumors surrounding the release. Since then, ENJ has declined from a high of around $0.25 down to as low as $0.046 on Nov. 29.

With the latest Microsoft-fueled rally, price peaked at around $0.1059 on Friday morning (UTC), CoinMarketCap data shows. A press time, the rally looks to be losing steam slightly, with prices down to $0.0987.

Daily chart

As seen above, price action for ENJ had been stuck between two defined areas of support and resistance, between $0.051 and $0.068 for a period of about 72 days.

In all likelihood, Enjin coin bulls were beginning to grow thirsty for more developments to light a fire under prices. Now it would seem their prayers have been answered with the sharp breakout prompted by this week's news.

Rico Solo, a long-time investor in small-cap coins and an ENJ trader said he plans to take around 25 percent profit on this rally to guard against further downside risk in prices.

"I bought in before the Samsung news in early 2019 and waited around for something major to happen, unfortunately, I didn’t sell at the top and the price dropped hard," he said.

Disclosure: This author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing.