Cardano (ADA) Remains A Favorite Among Retail & Institutions Alike with Alonzo Upgrade “On Schedule”

Finally, after years of development, Cardano is all set to have smart contracts.

Talking about the much anticipated Alonzo upgrade in a recent vlog post, Cardano founder, who also co-founded Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson, said, “Everything’s green and go, we’re on schedule.”

The Alonzo hard fork is a major upgrade for the third-largest network with its full capabilities, including the implementation of smart contract functionality. This functionality will allow anyone to deploy their own smart contracts on the blockchain, paving the way for Cardano-native decentralized applications.

Alonzo’s activation will also mean the end of the Shelley era of Cardano and marking the beginning of the Goguen phase.

In its monthly update, IOHK shared that Cardano testnet is primed for release “for the first of September,” though “this is not without risk” as there could be “a severe unexpected issue which might push it out but with all known things that we know right now we remain on track,” it added.

This major milestone for Cardano is basically in its “final, critical stage” that will “usher in a transformative era of smart contracts capability.”

During the surprise Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Monday, Hoskinson also explained that 25 stakeholders went through a checklist of things, and everything “kept coming up green.” As such, the team is now ready to pick the mainnet candidate to begin the process of gradual upgrade.

“We’re going to initiate an HFC (hard fork combinator) event on the Testnet,” said Hoskinson. “Testnet will be in the Alonzo stage.”

actually kind of a cool and wholesome chat, where he mentions that it's up to the community to determine the values in Cardano and enforce standards on the apps. and that it's not up to him to endorse winners in app

maybe ADA has a good culture after all… https://t.co/pa3r5nY2Fb

— Austerity Sucks (@austerity_sucks) August 30, 2021

Ahead of this upgrade, ADA is rallying. Just a week back, ADA hit a new peak at $2.95 and is currently trading at $2.80, making it worth an $89.9 bln cryptocurrency.

While retail has been piling into ADA for some time now, institutions have also taken a liking to it.

According to Coin Shares’ report, last week, Bitcoin had outflows for the 8th consecutive week totaling $3.8 mln while Cardano saw inflows totaling $10.1 million, the largest on record that brings its market share to 0.15%.

Meanwhile, the leading network with smart contracts functionality Ethereum (ETH) represents 32% of total digital asset AUM, seeing $17 mln in inflows last week.

Other competitors Polkadot (DOT) and Solana (SOL), also recorded $1.5 mln and $2.7 mln in inflows. On Monday, Hoskinson praised Solana, which continues to rally to new peaks, on its success, tweeting, “Solana you guys seem to be making waves. Congratulations. Where can I learn more?”

DOT -3.39% Polkadot / USD DOTUSD $ 24.80
-$0.84-3.39% Volume 960.74 m Change -$0.84 Open $24.80 Circulating 987.58 m Market Cap 24.49 b 26 min Cardano (ADA) Remains A Favorite Among Retail & Institutions Alike with Alonzo Upgrade “On Schedule” 1 d Investors Turn to Ether Competitors, Solana's SOL Hits 3-Digits to Mark A New ATH 3 d Risky Assets Rejoice: Bitcoin & Gold Spike and Stocks Hit Record High while Dollar Weakens on Powell’s Dovish Speech SOL 9.35% Solana / USD SOLUSD $ 100.47
$9.399.35% Volume 2.52 b Change $9.39 Open $100.47 Circulating 290.94 m Market Cap 29.23 b 26 min Cardano (ADA) Remains A Favorite Among Retail & Institutions Alike with Alonzo Upgrade “On Schedule” 3 h OpenSea Dominates the NFT Market, Floor Price Continues Its Uptrend as Alameda Apes In, Solana Joins Too 1 d Historically September Records Losses, But Will This Time Be Any Different? ETH -0.15% Ethereum / USD ETHUSD $ 3,184.95
-$4.78-0.15% Volume 13.04 b Change -$4.78 Open $3,184.95 Circulating 117.32 m Market Cap 373.65 b 26 min Cardano (ADA) Remains A Favorite Among Retail & Institutions Alike with Alonzo Upgrade “On Schedule” 53 min Ripple Labs Requests Information About Possible SEC Employees’ XRP Holdings 1 h FTX to Offer Derivatives Trading to US Customers Through the Acquisition of CFTC-Regulated Exchange

AnTy has been involved in the crypto space full-time for over two years now. Before her blockchain beginnings, she worked with the NGO, Doctor Without Borders as a fundraiser and since then exploring, reading, and creating for different industry segments.