Cardano Founder Teases Chang Hard Fork Launch as Validator Upgrades Near 70% Threshold

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has teased the Cardano community on the upcoming release of the Chang hard fork.

“You ready for Chang?” Hoskinson said in an X post that comes as a majority of validators complete the upgrade to Node 9.1.0. 68% of Cardano network validators have upgraded to the latest node version, inching closer to the 70% threshold needed for the fork to go live.

As ZyCrypto reported, this network upgrade will usher in the Voltaire era for decentralized network governance.

The upgrade comes as the Cardano blockchain emerged third in terms of development activity in the last 30 days. Cardano development activity has also surged this week, as seen on Santiment, showing developers’ high interest in the network.

The Chang hard fork will bring many changes to the Cardano network, such as introducing on-chain governance mechanisms. The network will also have delegate representatives who will vote on behalf of ADA holders, making it more decentralized.

Chang marks the second major update by Cardano in the last two years since the Vasil hard fork upgrade in September 2022. As such, the upgrade could trigger gains for ADA price, as has historically been the case with such events.

Is ADA Ripe for a 27% Upswing?

ADA was trading at $0.34 at the time of writing after a slight 0.5% gain in 24 hours. The price has seen a major rebound since dropping to multi-month lows during the August 5 crash that triggered a bloodbath across the cryptocurrency industry.

Despite sustaining a steady uptrend over the past two days, the market sentiment is uncertain—the Relative Strength Index is at 48 points, indicating slight selling pressure. However, ADA has not been oversold, giving buyers leeway to support the price action and drive further gains.

If there is a recent dip and news around the Chang hard-fork drive buyers, the ADA price will likely continue to rally. The price currently sits at the 0.236 Fib level, with the immediate resistance at $0.341.

Testing this resistance will set the trend for further gains to target the 1.618 Fib level ($0.421), resulting in a 27% upswing from the current price.

Data from IntoTheBlock shows that 81% of ADA wallets are Out of The Money (in losses). These wallets might wait for Cardano to hit a break-even price before selling, giving room for further gains.

Conversely, such a large number of ADA wallets sitting on losses could also be bearish if these traders decide to sell to avoid further losses, especially amid the uncertainty across the cryptocurrency market.