Cardano (ADA) has become the third most valuable cryptocurrency in the market after blasting to a new ATH earlier today.
ADA Smashes Record High
ADA, the native currency of the Cardano network has spiked over 20.35% in the past 24 hours. It is currently worth $2.51 per coin after hitting its lifetime high of $2.55 in the morning hours on Friday. This is the coin’s highest level since the high of $2.46 registered in May.
ADA has overtaken Binance (BNB) to become the #3 cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $81 billion, behind only Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC). ADA’s price violent upswing is largely fueled by the forthcoming Alonzo hard fork which will deploy the much-awaited smart contract functionality to the Cardano ecosystem.
As ZyCrypto reported, the software upgrade is slated for September 12. This implies that after Alonzo is implemented, developers will be able to create decentralized Finance (DeFi) apps on the proof-of-stake blockchain that basically utilize the power of smart contracts to enable automated lending, borrowing, or trading without any middlemen.
Critics Abound
Cardano was created back in 2017 by Charles Hoskinson, who is also an Ethereum co-founder and IOHK CEO. The crypto seeks to challenge ETH and other decentralized applications networks as a more efficient and scalable alternative.
However, critics don’t think this will become a reality. Most recently, Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novogratz claimed he had spoken to “twenty of the smartest people” he knows in the industry and none of them has witnessed any notable traction with developers who build programs that boost a cryptocurrency’s mainstream adoption.
Hoskinson, however, quickly hit back at the hedge fund manager, stating:
“Here I can fix this statement for you Mike: ‘I’ve spoken to twenty of the smartest bankers I know in the space, and zero of them saw cryptocurrencies having any traction’ 🙂 we all heard that one. Let’s come back to his tweet every year. We’ll call August 15th, Mike check-in day.”
It’s worth mentioning that ADA has rallied over 1,800% in 2021 only, making it the best performer among the top ten cryptocurrencies — in comparison to ETH’s 650%, BNB’s 1,050%, and BTC’s 260% gains.
