Sell the news? ADA price drops 10% following Cardano's long-awaited smart contracts rollout

The so-called "Alonzo" upgrade did little in protecting Cardano from falling in tandem with the rest of the cryptocurrency market, though bullish technical factors remain. 

The price of Cardano (ADA) fell on Sept. 13 in line with the other top cryptocurrencies despite the completion of its hard fork upgrade dubbed "Alonzo," which introduces smart contract functionality.

The ADA/USD exchange rate dropped 10.67% to reach its intraday low of $2.3, partly due to profit-taking sentiment among traders following the pair's 1,200%-plus price rally this year. Additionally, the intraday sell-off also surfaced in the period of an overall crypto market decline, with top tokens Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) falling 4% and 6.97%, respectively.

Top 10 cryptocurrency tokens and their performance in the last 24 hours. Source: Messari

Cardano's drop appeared when its core foundation rolled out a long-awaited smart contracts feature on its public blockchain for the first time. The launch expects to tap the booming decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible token (NFT) sector as they grapple with slower and costlier transaction fees on the leading smart contracts platform, Ethereum.

As a result, anticipations for an extended upside boom in the ADA markets were high, with the Value Trend, a financial analyst at Seeking Alpha, expecting the Cardano native token to hit $10 should it flip Ethereum to become the leading smart contracts platform.

Overall, the belief helped ADA/USD deliver strong profits in the days approaching the Alonzo upgrade. On July 20, the pair was trading for as low as $1. Later, on Sept. 2, its value has risen to a record high of $3.16, a 200% rebound.

Bullish continuation signals persist

Bullish assets tend to consolidate sideways or lower following a strong move upside, majorly as some traders decide to secure their profits. At the same time, investors with a long-term bullish outlook buy the asset from weak hands to build long-term investment strategies.

The Cardano chart below hints at undergoing a similar consolidation phase after delivering a strong 200%-plus bull run. As a result, the probability of the ADA/USD exchange rate continuing its uptrend remains high.

ADA/USD daily price chart featuring Bull Flag formation. Source: TradingView.com

The rectangle pattern appears like a Bull Flag. And, as a general rule, the profit target for bulls in a Bull Flag scenario is the same as the length of the previous uptrend.

ADA/USD daily price chart featuring Bull Flag target. Source: TradingView.com

A break above the upper Bull Flag trendline (at $2.93) could put ADA/USD en route toward $4.5.

Additionally, the Cardano token would need to maintain its foothold above its 50-day exponential moving average (50-day EMA; the velvet wave) near $2.27 to keep its interim bullish bias intact. A drop below the Bull Flag support and 50-day EMA floor would risk sending ADA to $1.92, its support line from mid-August.

Analysts shared deeper price targets, with a pseudonymous Twitterati spotting a "Double Bottom" scenario, adding that traders are selling the news.

Cerbul, another market analyst, said ADA's ongoing plunge was not due to the "sell the news" sentiment, adding that more capital would flow into the Cardano ecosystem from the DeFi sector.

"Accumulate," he said.