Cardano Flies To New All-Time High On Smart Contracts Anticipation

Cardano (ADA), has hit a new all-time high as investors await a September release for the planned “Alonzo” upgrade – a move that would usher in smart-contract functionality.

ADA jumped 17 percent to reach a new record high of $2.55 on Friday, causing it to overtake Binance's native token to become the third-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalisation of $80 billion.

The native cryptocurrency powering Charles Hoskinson’s public blockchain has been on a tear in recent weeks and is up 150% from July 21 lows of $1.

It appears the “Alonzo” upgrade is having a significant impact on investor sentiment. The upgrade seeks to usher in smart-contract functionality and address what critics have described as one of the network’s most glaring deficiencies. The upgrade is slated for October 1, though some are betting it will overshoot and release sometime later.

Cardano has been through multiple developmental phases including the foundational phase Byron and decentralized phase Shelly which saw the introduction of delegated staking. According to the Cardano roadmap, smart contracts will go live when the project enters its third era, Goguen.

Cardano was founded by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson in 2017 and aims to directly compete with Ethereum and other decentralized application platforms as a more scalable, secure, and efficient alternative.