Cardano (ADA) has been a major standout in the latest crypto market rally, surging 63% month-to-date. After cementing $2 key support, the fourth-largest crypto by market cap went on to hit its highest level since mid-May as it crawled past $2.20.
ADA has, however, recoiled slightly at the time of publication and is showing signs of profit-taking. The crypto is down 1.44% over a 24-hour period and is currently changing hands for roughly $2.01. Yet, strengthening fundamentals could push ADA up in the near term.
Exchanges Actively Working With Cardano Foundation To Become Alonzo Ready
IOHK announced via Twitter on August 16 that the Cardano network has onboarded over 250 participants since launching the Alonzo Purple upgrade. Additionally, six exchanges are now “actively engaging” with the Cardano Foundation to integrate the blockbuster smart contract upgrade.
The Cardano team expects this number to increase significantly in the course of the week. The goal is to ensure that the majority of exchanges are ready before Alonzo is launched on the mainnet.
In the Monday update, IOHK also revealed that they had released the Plutus “mainnet candidate” to the node team who are integrating before passing it to the Alan, Dorin, and the QA testing teams. Once they have given their green light, they will send it to the component teams who will then implement any final updates before the Alonzo hard fork on the testnet slated for September 1st.
Upgrade Could Help Cardano Soar
ADA has had a good run this year. The tremendous upward move was courtesy of the impending technological upgrades, specifically smart contracts on Cardano, an event that a widely-followed trader Lark Davis has termed as a “very bullish catalyst” for the coin. Davis noted that a 6X growth would give ADA the same market capitalization as Ethereum, adding:
“BUT if Cardano gets it right then we could still see it rally a couple of hundred percent after smart contracts launch % users start using!”
In short, the highly-anticipated upgrade has driven Cardano’s success over the past several months, and the arrival of smart contracts on the blockchain may continue boosting the cryptocurrency.
Initially universalized by Ethereum, smart contracts are financial contracts that allow an array of financial services to take place via a distributed ledger without the need for a third party. The Alonzo upgrade will move a part of the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector — currently standing at $126 billion — to the Cardano platform.
Fellow trader ADA Dolphin was similarly upbeat on the future price odds. “2.50 #ADA if this breaks to the upside,” he summarized.
via ZyCrypto