- Cardano price movements can be explained by the potential of an upcoming smart contract upgrade by mid-September.
- Cardano-focused investment products recorded inflows of $1.3 million ahead of the Alonzo hard fork event.
- Trader optimism is reflected in the prediction market where 80% of bets favor Cardano.
Cardano has rallied 14% in the past week due to increasing institutional investment ahead of the Alonzo upgrade. Though tech timelines are challenging to predict, the Cardano team has set a date for the launch of smart contract functionality on the mainnet as mid-September.
Cardano ranks third in market capitalization, replacing Tether
Cardano replaced the stablecoin USD Tether to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. At the time of writing, ADA price is $2.01, and the market cap has crossed $64 billion.
Cardano's upcoming smart contract launch has attracted an increased inflow of capital from institutions. Cardano investment products observed a rise of $1.3 million in inflows when the top two cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, noted outflows of nearly $22 million.
Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), the decentralized blockchain company behind Cardano, recently announced that the team is on track to meet the projected hard fork dates for its testnet and mainnet. IOHK shared the update on Twitter
#Cardano #smartcontracts are coming…
We're on track to meet the projected HF dates for both testnet & mainnet #Alonzo upgrade, as Nigel outlined in last week update
A new era is set to begin on Sunday 12th September 2021 $ADA pic.twitter.com/HrdrqYizhP
— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) August 17, 2021