YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) — ADA was one of the best performers across the cryptocurrency markets on Wednesday and the ongoing Thursday session, beating even the top-cap digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum as traders assessed its parent firm Cardano’s technological victory.
Related: Cardano traders yawn through bullish fundamentals as ADA awaits 25% rally
The blockchain network announced the completion of its Alonzo white hard fork, thereby paving the way to introduce smart contracts functionality on its platform for the first time since its mainnet launch in September 2017.
Meanwhile, the upgrade also enabled Cardano to become fully integrable with most decentralized finance applications, bringing its network in line with Ethereum, the world’s leading smart contracts platform.
ADA, Cardano’s native token that gives stakers a claim on new issuance in proportion to their holdings and allows users to pay for transactions, popped higher after the hard fork news. On Wednesday, the ADA/USD exchange rate jumped 11.01% to $1.17. Meanwhile, on Thursday, the pair held onto its previous session’s gains, raising hopes of steady upside moves in the short term.
ADA scored profits all across 2020 as traders perceived Cardano as a viable competitor to Ethereum. The cryptocurrency has had a highly successful last 12 months—it rose by more than 850%. It also shows in the token’s price rise as it is one of the biggest winners year-to-date, about 577% at press time.
Related: ADA ascends as Grayscale adds Cardano to institutional crypto basket
The Alonzo white hard fork guaranteed competitive escalation for Cardano in an otherwise heated smart contracts industry. Its implementation, for now, has given the feature access to 500 network users, who would act as validators on the Cardano network.
The next implementation in line is yet another color-coded upgrade, dubbed as the Alonzo purple hard fork. It would focus on the Cardani network’s scalability and governance. If successfully, Cardano would move towards a full-fledged Alonzo mainnet launch.
“Our growth over the last year has been remarkable, and smart contracts are nearly here,” said Charles Hokinson, the chief executive and co-founder of IOHK, one of the three firms building the Cardano ecosystem.
“Cardano remains one of the fastest-growing, most stable, most mature, and systematic cryptocurrency projects,”
he added.
The Cardano price gains also came in the wake of a crypto rally across the board.
Related: Ethereum pumps 16% as Elon Musk claims he owns ETH, what’s next?
Investors started flocking back to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum after Elon Musk revealed that his rocket company SpaceX holds Bitcoin, and that he would have his other firm Tesla resume its Bitcoin payment option after the sector switches to green energy for its mining needs.
Bitcoin’s trends influece altcoin markets, especially the top-cap cryptos like Ether, Litecoin, XRP, and Cardano. That also explains why ADA logged a supersonic rally on Wednesday. And, like other top digital assets, look relative stable on Thursday.
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