Cardano shoots up close to $2 on anticipated network upgrade
07:15, 13 August 2021
Cardano (ADA), the native token of the Cardano blockchain, has risen to become the best-performing Top 10 cryptocurrency in the past week as it has gained over 42%. On Friday morning, the token’s price climbed to $1.99, recording a 24-hour increase of over 12%.
From the most recent market lows on 20 July, Cardano’s price has almost doubled from $1.02 to $1.99.
In the same period, bitcoin (BTC) has gained 56% and ether (ETH) has climbed 84%.
On Friday, 13 August, Cardano surpassed the stablecoin Tether (USDT) as its market capitalisation touched $63.1bn. It was just $4bn behind the Binance coin (BNB) – the world’s third-biggest cryptocurrency by market value, according to Coinmarketcap.com data.
High expectations from ADA network upgrade
Cardano’s strong performance in the past week is linked to a major network upgrade that could take place sometime in the next month. The upgrade, codenamed Alonzo Purple, will allow the integration of smart contracts to the Cardano blockchain.
Charles Hoskinson, co-founder and CEO of Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), the company that develops the Cardano network, said on 11 August that he would announce the exact date of the upgrade today (13 August). He also dropped a hint that the launch would happen before the Cardano Summit scheduled in September.
Cardano has picked up the pace of development recently and has been among the most active networks in deploying changes to its blockchain, according to GitHub daily development activity statistics.
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Network upgrades support crypto rally
Successful blockchain upgrades generally have a positive impact on token prices. The recent upgrade in the Ethereum network, known as the London Hard Fork, has given a strong boost to the blockchain’s native coin, ether (ETH).
ETH is currently trading at $3,200, up from $1,722 on 20 July.
Ether and altcoins have driven the recent crypto rally, which took the overall market capitalisation from $1.2trn on 20 July to over $1.9trn on 13 August.
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