Cardano Flips Key Altcoin — Here’s What This Means For ADA

Cardano continues to perform well this summer, most recently flipping a key altcoin in market cap. Find out what this means for Cardano’s prospects.

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Cardano Flips XRP
Prospects Post-Vasil/Mark Cuban’s Comments

Cardano Flips XRP

Smart contract protocol Cardano (ticker symbol ADA) just flipped XRP in market cap. Cardano is now 6th in global market cap with 18.9 billion USD. This puts them ahead of not only XRP, but also fellow top 10 smart contract competitors Solana (8th) and Polkadot (9th).

The move up the charts for ADA stems from the awaited release of Vasil. In a way, the delays have helped Cardano maintain a strong catalyst during an opportune time with the market moving upward since July.

Nevertheless, despite the big move Cardano is still only 6th. However, a closer look at the top 10 shows it’s only really behind one true altcoin: BNB. Otherwise the five spots ahead of them is occupied by Bitcoin and Ethereum, and the two stablecoins USDT and USDC. Cardano has briefly usurped BNB in the past, like back during its pre smart contract run in the summer of 2021.

It’s not surprising that after months of bearishness that stablecoins would dominate, considering many people who sold off profits have left them in stablecoins while waiting for the right time to reenter. Does Cardano have what it takes to take advantage of those dormant stablecoins post-Vasil?

Prospects Post-Vasil/Mark Cuban’s Comments

Cardano’s Vasil upgrade has undergone several delays already, but it’s been from an abundance of caution. The question isn’t if just when the upgrade is completed. However, the question remains if Cardano can continue its positive price action.

After their last major catalyst back in the summer of 2021, Cardano fell hard. Even while the majority of crypto enjoyed a strong fall, Cardano’s price kept falling. It didn’t really matter that Cardano was coming through on its promises of DeFi, or that metavese and NFT projects were popping up. The price was just going down. Some of that may have been due to insider selling to fund projects, but regardless, the vibes were bad.

That changed with Vasil, as we’ve seen. Though, Cardano is still a ways away from its 2021 highs. ADA is currently trading in the $0.56 USD range, way of its $3 all-time high. Can it get back there with the upgrade?

For one, Mark Cuban isn’t sure. The Shark Tank and owner of the Dallas Mavericks recently said Cardano has more applications than Dogecoin. Doge does have a sneaky good roadmap, but it still doesn’t have the functionality yet that Cardano does.

Where Cuban was right though was questioning what Cardano is bringing to the table that’s different than Ethereum. Bringing out DeFi, NFTs, and metaverse related projects shows your capable industry minimum, but what are you bringing to the table that’s new and exciting?

That’s not clear for Cardano. However, that doesn’t mean Cardano doesn’t have strong long-term prospects to make money. For one, Cardano is positioning itself to be a leader in the burgeoning African market. Cuban is dubious of this. He engaged with Mr.Telecom on Twitter. For the most part, it read like a measuring contest — particularly on the part of Cuban.

But Mr.Telecom did point to some promising numbers. “Even though out network is 12 x cheaper to build than legacy mobile networks we are limited to a range of pricing by the local regulator in any country we launch. However by being both an MNO and ISP we can offset a lot of the cost for the end user,” he said before adding, “We aim to be half the price of legacy mobile networks in each country we launch.”

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