Cardano (ADA) traded at new all-time highs on Friday as anticipation among crypto traders grows over a key technology update for the blockchain platform.
The ADA crypto token traded up 20% to US$2.55 in the small hours of Friday, taking its market cap to over US$80bn – strengthening its position as the third-largest crypto by value (an accolade set earlier this week).
It leaves Cardano trailing only Bitcoin and Ethereum, which have market caps of US$887bn and US$376bn respectively.
Cardano: What is it and what does the future hold
Traders and cypto-evangelists are eyeing an anticipated upgrade that will add ‘smart-contract’ functionality to the Cardano platform, which will go some way to close the technology gap to Ethereum.
It potentially positions Cardano as a rival crypto platform for both decentralised app developers and decentralised finance ventures, which at present largely use Ethereum.
Cardano is positioned as a scalable and environmental responsible crypto platform, using a ‘proof of stake’ methodology that doesn’t require the same high-level energy-sapping compute as Bitcoin.
Friday’s crypto trading also saw Bitcoin rise 6.2% to US$47,209 whilst Ethereum added 7.18% to US$3,204.
Smart contracts are self-executive computer programs that allow certain transactions to be conducted without an intermediary.
The use of smart contracts for a wide range of activities such as games, lending and the trading of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has led to the growth of a number of blockchain platforms, most notably Ethereum.