7 October 2022
Cardano Becomes the world’s Third largest Cryptocurrency
ADA - the native cryptocurrency of the Cardano blockchain, has soared to a new all-time high of $1.29. ADA meticulously defeated BNB during this journey, making it the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Based on Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView Ada’s data, ADA has jumped 27% from a low of $0.98 to its new high at $1.29 on record trading volume. After integrating the Mary upgrade to Cardano’s testnet, the project received significant momentum throughout February. This upgrade enables smart contract functionality by transforming the blockchain into a multi-asset network similar to Ethereum.
The price rise coincided with Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson’s tweet that indicated Mary would be live on the mainnet by Mar. 1. Smart contract functionality is the main component of the Mary upgrade and will lead to a new era of the Cardano ecosystem’s functionality. After integration, decentralized finance applications will be operating on the network and provide an outlet for users to escape high gas fees on the Ethereum network.
ADA briefly spiked to $1.17 after the announcement, but the pressures in the broader cryptocurrency market pushed it back below the $1.00 level on Feb. 25. After that, Ada’s trading volume has surged tremendously to a new record of $12.8 billion, helping to establish a new all-time high. The open interest for Ada futures also raised to $580 million and surpassed Litecoin (LTC) to become the third-largest derivatives market.