Cardano (ADA) is displaying strength, rising 8% over the last 24 hours to trade at $0.3677 on Aug. 21. This price growth has seen ADA recoup all the losses made between Aug. 4 and Aug. 5, citing a possible shift in investor sentiment toward the layer-1 token.
Let’s look at the bullish catalysts driving ADA price up today.
Cardano founder reveals Chang Hard Fork is “most consequential”
ADA’s gains follow Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson’s update on the blockchain’s progress and the upcoming Chang hard fork. Speaking in his latest podcast on Aug. 21, Hoskinson described the importance of the long-awaited Chang hard fork scheduled for launch on Aug. 27.
Reflecting on the challenges and achievements the Cardano ecosystem has faced over the last decade, Hoskinson mentioned that the project involved a team of dedicated individuals from over 25 countries who created the design SIP-1694.
Hoskinson considers the upcoming hard fork consequential in blockchain’s history.
“This is the most consequential because this unlocks the most advanced governance stack in the history of the cryptocurrency industry.”
According to him, the Chang hard fork will combine concepts like liquid democracy with a constitutional republic that will enable and allow powerful institutions to pass and walk through stuff like budgets or roadmaps.
The Chang hard fork represents an important upgrade for the Cardano ecosystem, and Hoskinsion says it will initiate the transition to the Voltaire era, marking the final stage of its road map to create a fully decentralized blockchain ecosystem.
Historical performance hints at the potential for a significant rally in ADA’s price ahead of the upgrade. In the run-up to its last major upgrade in 2021, ADA rallied 130% from $1.35 to $3.10 within a month.
This historical performance has raised expectations that the upcoming Chang hard fork could similarly catalyze a significant price rally for ADA, possibly explaining today’s price action.
ADA’sfunding rate turns positive
Data from Coinglass reveals that ADA’s derivatives funding rate flipped negative on Aug. 21. The metric is now back in the positive region at 0.0047%, indicating an increasing appetite for long positions.
This shift in market sentiment typically becomes evident after significant price movements, as seen with the 7% leap in ADA’s price over the last four hours.
ADA’s rally on Aug. 21 was accompanied by short liquidations totaling $701,490, against $81,450 long liquidations.
Additional data from markets tracker Coinmarketcap shows that ADA’s trading volume has increased by 51.6% over the last 24 hours to reach $348 million.
The following figure gives a detailed breakdown of the trading activity on top 10 exchanges, revealing that the volume on Binance (involving the ADA/USDT pair) accounted for 11.5% of this volume, followed by HTX with 4.67% and ByBit with 4.5%, among other exchanges.
The substantial increase in ADA trading volume indicates renewed interest and activity around Cardano, suggesting that traders are closely monitoring its price movements.
The technical setup reveals a growing bullish divergence between ADA’s price and the relative strength index (RSI) in the daily timeframe.
Notably, ADA’s price recorded lower highs between July 28 and Aug. 20, as shown in the chart below. But, in the same period, its daily RSI ascended, forming higher highs.
As a rule of technical analysis, a divergence between falling prices and rising RSI indicates strength in the prevailing uptrend, prompting traders to buy more at local dips.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.