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The cardano (ADA) price neared an all-time high Thursday, rising to $2.44 in digital-asset markets, as investors await a September release for the planned “Alonzo” upgrade – a move that would usher in smart-contract functionality and thus address what critics have described as one of the network’s most glaring deficiencies.
- As of press time, ADA has been trading at $2.35, up 14% during the past 24 hours, based on CoinDesk pricing.
- ADA reached an all-time-high price of $2.47 in May.
- Lead Cardano developer Input Output recently announced a timeline for the “Alonzo” upgrade, targeting Sept. 12 for the final release date.
- Smart-contract functionality would allow Cardano to incorporate more applications including so-called decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms that allow for automated cryptocurrency lending and trading.
- The improvement could put the network in a better position to challenge Ethereum, currently the leader among blockchains with smart-contract functionality.
- In a prediction market started in July that allows participants to bet on whether Cardano can release smart contract functionality by Oct. 1, the betting contract was trading at 79 cents as of press time.
- It is up from 30 cents on July 18 when the market was first launched but down from its all-time high of 85 cents on Aug 12 and Aug 15. The betting contract pays out $1 of the stablecoin USDC if Cardano succeeds in meeting the timeline.
Correction (21:43 UTC, Aug. 19, 2021): An earlier version of this story erroneously stated that Cardano had hit an all-time price. This story has been corrected to show that the price rose close to an all-time high.
