Cardano bears initiate takeover as ADA price plummets

Cardano has faced criticism from analysts after the testnet launch. Traders are cautious of further pullback as the altcoin drops to $2.58.

Cardano price plunges despite 64% of the network gearing up for Alonzo hard fork

Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, has warned traders of the rising fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) ahead of the launch of smart contracts on the mainnet. 

When Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) initially announced the date for the Alonzo hard fork, Cardano rallied to hit a new all-time high at $3.09. 

Since then, the Ethereum alternative has attracted severe criticism from developers and traders in the crypto ecosystem for the technical challenges it faces in smart contract execution. Ethereum maximalists attribute the errors faced by smart contract executors to the absence of a Cardano virtual machine. 

The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) enables the execution of code as it is intended on the Ethereum blockchain. It works as the runtime environment for each smart contract on the Ethereum network. Developers value the EVM for having no downtime and keeping all objects created in smart contracts free from modification and error. Therefore, in the absence of a Turing-complete machine, the community’s critique has fast-tracked a bearish takeover. 

Cardano’s development team at IOHK is confident of a smooth transition to mainnet on September 12. A failed transaction is not a problem on the Cardano blockchain; instead, the network aims to tackle unpredictable and high transaction costs on the Ethereum network. 

Jason Pizzino, cryptocurrency analyst and YouTube content creator, applies the Elliott Wave Theory to Cardano and believes that bull cycles manifest in waves, following crowd psychology. Pizzino’s highest target for the ADA price is $11.

What do we get if we do an 800% or 900% from the low that was put in in June and July… That would bring us to around our $8 mark… Maybe we hit a 1,000% return from that point. That’s going to bring us up to $10 or $11.

Anticipating the mainnet launch, 64% of Cardano pools have upgraded to the 1.29.0 Alonzo node. IOHK had set a target of 70%, but the team expects nearly 80% of the pools to be ready for the hard fork event by September 12. 

Overall, analysts fear a short-term bearish takeover as uncertainty is rising closer to the event. 

Michaël van de Poppe, cryptocurrency analyst and CEO of Eight Global, a cryptocurrency education platform, believes Cardano is heading towards entry points.