Ben Strack

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                <li>Cardano’s ADA token price, which is currently up about 124% from 30 days ago, went above $3 following the testnet hard fork</li>
                <li>About 140 exchanges have switched to a live production environment to prepare for Cardano’s mainnet upgrade</li>
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<p>The price of <a href="https://cardano.org">Cardano</a>’s ADA token shot up following the hard fork of the blockchain platform’s testnet on Wednesday.</p>



<p>ADA hit $3.09 Wednesday morning and was at $2.94 as of Noon eastern time, according to CoinGecko data — up about 4% in the last day and 124% from 30 days ago. The coin is the <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/cardano-now-third-largest-cryptocurrency-by-market-cap/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">third-largest cryptocurrency</a> by market capitalization at about $94 billion, behind only bitcoin and Ether, and ahead of Binance Coin.</p>



<p>Cardano’s Alonzo hard fork will bring its smart contract capability <a href="https://testnets.cardano.org/en/programming-languages/plutus/overview/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Plutus</a> to the network and provides the foundation for more decentralized applications to be built on the platform. </p>



<p>The upgrade onto the company’s mainnet is still on track for Sept. 12, according to a tweet by <a href="https://iohk.io/about/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Input Output</a>, the blockchain infrastructure research and engineering company behind Cardano.</p>



<p>The blockchain platform launched a public testnet in early-August to allow 500 community members to work with smart contracts on the network before the upgrade, Nigel Hemsley, Cardano’s head of delivery, previously said. The hard fork on the testnet occurred Wednesday.</p>



<p>“We’ll be running our own tests and inviting others to test as well, with the main goal being to test for stability, security testing that the foundational code to write smart contracts is working properly and all the other miscellaneous things that need to be done to ensure that we can confidently hard for to the mainnet,” Cardano stated in a Sept. 1 YouTube video.</p>



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<iframe loading="lazy" title="Cardano Smart Contracts Hardfork 2021" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bymz6eVkm5c?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p>With the testnet hardfork, about 140 exchanges switched to a live production environment to prepare for the mainnet launch, the video notes.</p>



<p>David Tawil, president of ProChain Capital, previously told Blockworks that this hard fork was “critical” for Cardano. He added that if there is a major uptick in adoption, investors would be justified to give Cardano a valuation that is similar or equal to Ethereum as the functionality will be the same or better.</p>



<p>Cardano saw inflows of $10.1 million last week, according to a CoinShares report. It was the largest total on record for Cardano, bringing its market share to 0.15%.</p>



<p>Meanwhile bitcoin had outflows for the eighth consecutive week, according to the report. Altcoins, including Ethereum, now represent 32% of total crypto assets under management, CoinShares data shows, which is close to the record of 35% set in mid-May.</p>



<p><strong><strong><em>Want more investor-focused content on digital assets? <a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/digital-asset-summit-2021-2/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Join us</a> September 13th and 14th for the Digital Asset Summit (DAS) in NYC. Use code ARTICLE for $75 off your ticket. <a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/digital-asset-summit-2021-2/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Buy it now</a>.</em></strong></strong></p>
