Cardano's price surged about 60% over the past week, placing it 10th on CoinMarketCap. Charles Hoskinson, who co-founded the project, announced this week that the Shelley upgrade would launch in early
Cardano's price surged about 60% over the past week, placing it 10th on CoinMarketCap. Charles Hoskinson, who co-founded the project, announced this week that the Shelley upgrade would launch in early July. This protocol update transitions Cardano to a Proof-of-Stake consensus model, enabling coin holders to earn rewards by staking their tokens.
The altcoin climbed from $0.055 to $0.088, the highest price since June 2019. In the past 24 hours alone, ADA jumped 10%, pushing the network's market cap to $2.2 billion. That beats Tezos at $2.1 billion but trails EOS at $2.5 billion.
Trading volumes have spiked. On May 24, daily volume was around $108 million. By the end of the month it topped $880 million. Volumes currently sit near $665 million and could climb further as the July 7 launch date approaches.
The token reached its all-time peak of $1.12 in January 2018.
The Shelley upgrade stands out in cryptocurrency's evolution. IOHK, the firm building Cardano since 2017, spent the past two years developing Byron and Shelley, two staking-focused protocols. Byron has been active for about two years; Shelley replaces it. Built on Haskell, the new system has supporters convinced it will reshape Cardano's price prospects.
Hoskinson called the effort momentous. "It's been a long time coming and it's been a difficult year," he told his podcast audience. "What we've built is the world's next operating system."
The shift ranks alongside major protocol changes in crypto history. "This is like Ripple changing its consensus protocol," Hoskinson said. "No cryptocurrency has really done this to this scale after they've rolled out."
Stellar surged 28% during the week. Ethereum climbed 17%, Tezos rose about 11%, and Bitcoin Cash gained over 10%.
