On July 3, 2022, Cardano (ADA) effectively performed its testnet’s hard fork in order to prepare for the forthcoming Vasil upgrade. This latest update indicates better scalability and also ensures performance upgrades in the blockchain network. The news on the Cardano Vasil Upgrade came as a relief to ADA enthusiasts who were earlier distressed due to the bleeding crypto market and losing their ADA investments’ value.
The aforementioned announcement was made by Input-Output Global (IOG), which is the tech firm behind Cardano. IOG was earlier known as IOHK before it was rebranded. The company is now reaching up to crypto exchanges, blockchain developers, and even stake pool participants to introduce their crypto ventures on their testnet. This move is undertaken to ensure that any issues or discrepancies on the platform could be detected way before the actual launch of the Vasil upgrade on ADA’s mainnet.
Cardano Vasil Upgrade Highlights
The Cardano Vasil hard fork that was conducted is a highly significant step undertaken for its launch on the mainnet. Moreover, this step is considered one of the main features of ADA’s Basho phase. The previous three phases were Byron, Shelly, Goguem, focused on foundation, decentralization, and smart contracts, respectively. However, Basho’s goal is completely distinct as it aims at better scalability.
Once the Cardano Vasil Upgrade is launched on the mainnet, it will bring in a pool of scalability improvement features. These features include greater throughput or block production speed and enhanced “script performance and efficiency.” Further, the end-users will be benefited due to the low-cost network operations. Moreover, the Vasil upgrade is also set to provide compatibility between Cardano and the other existing blockchain networks.
Out of the Cardano projects list, the first one to be launched is definitely the Vasil upgrade. However, the exact launch date of the upgrade is yet not determined as the IOG said that the Vasil upgrade will become a reality only when the Cardano community will be “comfortable and ready.” But one can expect the release in the coming four weeks as the company indicated. The IOG had previously scheduled Vasil’s mainnet release on June 29, 2022, but the engineering team approved the postponement of the launch to buy time in order to fix numerous bugs on the network. However, these bugs weren’t serious in nature.
Cardano’s Smart Contract Growth
The recent significant developments for the blockchain, apart from the Vasil upgrade, include the growth due to Cardano smart contracts. The inclusion of the smart contract functionality provided an edge to ADA’s operations. Due to this addition, an array of DApps came in along with DeFI protocols. Even when the systems faced concurrency issues, the network saw notable developer activity and also an increased number of DApps flowing in. Therefore, the Cardano DApps list got bigger.
According to data by DeFi Llama, the DeFi TVL aggregator, the total value locked (TVL) for Cardano currently stands at $115.85 million. The figure is indicative of the fact that Cardano has achieved a lot in a short span of time. Moreover, the greatest contribution to this figure is by WingRiders, a decentralized exchange, which holds a value of $49.7 million. Further, it is estimated that the Cardano DeFi Projects list is expanding day by day.
Cardano Price Update
Even though the aforementioned Cardano news is a great deal for the blockchain network, it had not affected the token’s prices much on July 3, 2022. After a few minutes of the announcement, the ADA price was down by about 0.4% and traded at $0.44, approximately. However, about two days later, ADA saw a ‘green ‘ price movement. On July 5, the Cardano coin was up by 4.75% and traded at $0.4694 at the time of writing, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The market capitalization of the coin stood at $15.8 billion, up by 4.75%. Moreover, the 24-hour trade volume gained by a whopping 93.28% and was at $841.1 million.
The 7-day chart prior to this increment shows a constant decline in ADA’s value. In that short period of time, the crypto fell by about 3.67, thanks to the repeated red and green price fluctuations. However, even after such declines, the price forecast for the token is still high. The Cardano price prediction for 2025 is pegged at $1.65 by various crypto analysts. This positive rating and forecast can be another reason to provide ADA investors a breather. But it is yet to be seen if these predictions become a reality. For now, let’s wait for the Cardano Vasil Upgrade to be launched on the mainnet.
