Cardano Now Third Largest Crypto Ahead of Smart Contracts Update

After months of uncertainty there appeara to be  break in the wather with Founder Charles Hoskinson finally about to reveal details of the upcoming Smart Contracts. The market has been rife with speculation, all of which bodes well for Markethive. Here are the detail from a couple of CryptoBriefing articles, the first by  Ali Martinez.

Cardano's price action seems to be evolving around the upcoming Alonzo hardfork.

Key Takeaways

• Cardano has become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap after breaking $2 earlier today.
• Charles Hoskinson is expected to announce the date smart contracts will launch on Cardano as part of the Alonzo hardfork today, which may explain the rise.
• Further buying pressure could see ADA climb to new all-time highs, but a postponement could lead to a selloff.

Cardano has skyrocketed as market participants await a protocol upgrade that will expand the network’s utility. 

Cardano Moves Past $2

Cardano has surged nearly 20% in the last 24 hours. 

ADA is trading above $2 for the first time since May, which puts its market cap above $65 billion. It’s overtaken Tether to become the third-largest cryptocurrency, behind only Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The sudden upswing seems to be fueled by mounting speculation around Cardano’s smart contract functionality. Founder Charles Hoskinson is expected to reveal further details about Cardano’s forthcoming Alonzo hardfork today, which includes plans to launch smart contracts on the network. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts have turned bullish on the token’s future price action. 

Behavior analytics platform Santiment reveals that the recent upward impulse was supported by a spike in buying pressure across the board. Cardano’s trading volume has skyrocketed by 250% over the last four days. 

Another uptick in buy orders may signal the continuation of the uptrend, potentially pushing the asset into price discovery mode.

IntoTheBlock’s In/Out of the Money Around Price (IOMAP) model shows that nothing stands in Cardano’s way to new all-time highs. The only considerable supply zone lies between $2.15 and $2.20. Around this price level, more than 20,000 addresses have previously purchased over 150 million ADA. 

A decisive close above this resistance level could see market participants rush to cryptocurrency exchanges to buy in, consequently pushing prices further up.

Source: IntoTheBlock

Investors must note that the cryptocurrency community expects Cardano’s Alonzo hardfork to occur in early October. An unanticipated delay in the protocol upgrade could lead to disappointment, encouraging market participants to sell.

Under such unique circumstances, the IOMAP reveals that the most significant support level sits between $1.72 and $1.79, where over 100,000 addresses hold nearly 2 billion ADA. 

Here is the Link to the First Article

Here is the Second and most recent Article by Vishal Chawla and the title of that is called:

Cardano Says Smart Contracts Will Go Live in September

Key Takeaways

• Cardano's team has confirmed that smart contracts are scheduled to launch on the blockchain with the Alonzo hardfork on Sep. 12.
• The launch will allow for DeFi, NFTs, and gaming apps to go live on Cardano.
• Cardano's ADA token has surged today in anticipation for the update. It's now the third biggest cryptocurrency by market cap.

Cardano is targeting Sep. 12 for smart contracts to go live as part of the Alonzo hardfork.

Cardano Slates September Release For Alonzo

The team behind the Cardano blockchain has finalized a date for its highly anticipated smart contract rollout.

According to the latest announcement from Input Output, the team developing Cardano, the smart contracts launch will be executed with a hardfork dubbed “Alonzo” on Sep. 12.

The launch of smart contracts on the Proof-of-Stake blockchain will allow for the launch of dApps covering use cases like DeFi, written in its in-house programming language, Plutus.

In a video stream, Nigel Hemsley, Head of Delivery at Cardano, confirmed the update. “We are rapidly moving towards the hardfork on the mainnet,” he said. “Our engineering and test teams are working extremely hard to make sure components are updated and ready for the final Alonzo release.”

In the past, the team has faced criticism over slow rollouts and the lack of smart contracts. In recent months, Cardano has made significant progress and gradually resolved the schedule towards implementing smart contracts.

Last week, Input-Output implemented Alonzo Purple, the project’s first public test network version. The project is currently at the second-last phase in a series of Alonzo testnets ending with the scheduled mainnet hardfork next month.

Alonzo Purple opens the network up for the community to test the smart contract code, run validator nodes, and stake assets. In terms of the timeline of the mainnet hardfork, the team will finalize the main candidate release of the node in the next week. Furthermore, the focus will be on software testing and last-minute checks to push towards the final deployment.

Preparing for the launch, the team noted that over 140 exchanges would need to be ready with the complete software package, including components like DB-Sync, Cardano wallet, Rossetta API, and GraphQL Explorer. To meet that goal, Cardano Foundation is working with 140 exchanges to start the integration on Alonzo Purple.

Once all the software components are ready, the next step is implementing a final testnet on Sep. 1, which should be the final stage before the mainnet launch.

With the launch date approaching, Cardano’s native token ADA surged today to enter the top three cryptocurrencies by market cap. It’s up 17% in the last 24 hours, with the token trading above $2 for the first time since May. At a market cap of $64.3 billion, Cardano now trails only the two leading cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Here is the Link to the Second Article