ADA hits $2 first the time since May ahead of Cardano smart contract announcement

All eyes on a support/resistance flip at $2 as bearish sentiment stays absent for Cardano this week.

Cardano's ADA token made a triumphant return to the $2 mark on Aug. 13 as weekly gains topped 50%.

ADA/USD 1-day candle chart (Binance). Source: TradingView

ADA reverses most of its 3-month losses

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed ADA/USD quickly shooting higher during Friday after overcoming heavy resistance. 

At the time of writing, the pair circled $2.07 and was continuing to climb, gaining $0.25 overnight.

$2.07 marked ADA's highest price since May 18 and the start of the cross-crypto price rout engendered by China's mining shakeout.

The move was accompanied by impending technological upgrades, notably smart contracts on Cardano, something popular trader Lark Davis described as a "very bullish catalyst."

"A mere 6X would give it the same market cap as Ethereum," he noted, forecasting potential gains of "several hundred percent" once the smart contract feature goes live.

"Maybe one day Cardano will 50X, but it is not super likely across short time frames considering the market cap."

ADA was thus the second best performer on the day, just behind The Graph (GRT).

Bitcoin still grapples with sellers

As Cointelegraph reported, Cardano is not alone in battling key resistance levels this week. 

Related: Ethereum price drops below $3K, but ETH options data reflects optimism

Bitcoin (BTC), fresh from a solid run which saw it preserve $40,000 as new support, continues to focus on $47,000, a major sell wall which has so far kept $50,000 out of reach.

Optimism meanwhile remains high over the potential return of gains among DeFi tokens after several months of lackluster performance.