Ethereum-Competitor Cardano (ADA) Surges Past $2.0 To Become the Fourth-Largest Cryptocurrency

18. May 2021 Posted by Akolkar B on News

While the crypto market remains majority abuzz with stories of Bitcoin and Ethereum, we cannot ignore Cardano (ADA) which is making strong moves in recent weeks. Over the last weekend, the Ethereum-competitor surged all the way hitting its all-time high of $2.56 with its valuations soaring to $70 billion. Since the beginning of 2021, the Cardano (ADA) price has surged 13x registering a massive 1200% return year-to-date.

Although the Cardano (ADA) price has retraced partially from the high, it continues to trade above $2.0. This Proof-of-Stake (PoS) altcoin has proved to be much more energy efficient over Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

Since Cardano occupies very less energy in comparison to BTC and ETH, it is emerging as a “green coin”. The demand for Green coins has recently shot after Elon Musk’s Tesla announced dropping Bitcoin payments citing environmental concerns.

The Ethereum (ETH) blockchain is still dominating largely when it comes to smart contracts implementation. However, the Ethereum (ETH) network is getting a lot more crowded resulting into a major surge in the gas fee. As a result, developers and investors have been looking for alternative solutions and the Cardano blockchain fits the bill. Below are some of the important points said by Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson.

  • The Cardano PoS consensus protocol is 1.6 million times efficient over Bitcoin.
  • As per the Cardano Foundation, the Cardano blockchain is four million times more energy efficient that Bitcoin.

The rapidly emerging NFT marketplace recently saw buyers spending over $2 billion on NFT tokens during Q1 2021. Most of these NFTs use the Ethereum smart contracts. Once Cardano blockchain starts supporting smart contracts some of the money for NFTs will start flowing to the network.

Moreover, major crypto exchanges like Coinbase have recently announced listing for Cardano’s ADA. Considering Coinbase is one of the biggest crypto exchanges, this resulted into massive liquidity influx for Cardano driving its price higher.

Now, Cardano (ADA) is also becoming an attractive choice for institutions. Earlier today, Swiss asset manager Valour announced the launch of Cardano’s Exchange Traded Products (ETPs).

The Valour Cardano (ADA) SEK will be listed on the Nordic Growth Market (NGM) stock exchange and the shares of it goes live for trading on May 18, 2021. It allows institutions and individuals exposure to these cryptocurrencies without having to directly buy them.

Market analysts are already predicting that the Cardano (ADA) price can reach $10 by the end of this year.