Will Cardano’s AI upgrade help continue its upward trend? 

Cardano has been on a price surge lately. Yet announcements of an upgrade could push its price further. We discuss this in the article below. 

Charles Hoskinson is the founder of Cardano, of which ADA is the native currency. This week, he announced a major upgrade to the blockchain. This could see ADA become one of the first cryptocurrencies to use AI. The upgrade will introduce what is known as the Leios protocol. A test will run it at the fastest speed possible, and they will populate this with thousands of AI agents who will trade against each other.

ADA is the ninth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. It has a value of $23 billion and a trading volume of just under $560 million.  An L1 network, many believe it’s blockchain, Cardano, is overlooked by rivals. Thus, this could be a move to attract the attention of investors, who will see it as using the latest tech to upgrade its infrastructure in a bid to stimulate activity on the network. This is well overdue. However, this is untrodden ground, and AI has seldom been mixed with blockchain technology.

Currently, ADA crypto is testing new ground. It made a huge run, adding 40% to its value after the start of April. After several days, it hung around the $0.70 level. The upward trajectory seems to have stalled, with a mild push to $0.72. This mirrors increased volatility in the altcoin sector. Previous attempts to rally it past its psychological barriers have resulted in strong downturns, so it is now at a critical juncture. In this situation, stabilization seems to be the best option rather than a breakdown.

This announcement may have been timed to spark interest and continue this upward trend. At the time of writing, it seems to have worked. ADA is up by almost three percent over the past five days. This time yesterday, ADA had been down by around 8%, reaching lows of 0.65% on Tuesday.

For a full bull run to begin, it needs to maintain support at this level. Broader market sentiment towards it will decide this, not updates and new items regarding upgrades that will be unsustainable. For the moment, it does seem like some of the selling pressure may have eased off.  Compared to the rest of the cryptomarket, it is still an unproven coin. Looking at longer timeframes, it is up by 1.8% when rivals have gained far more. Rival blockchain Sol has made 19%, for example.

One of the co-founders of Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson, has worked hard to build the Cardano network. Its recent bursts in price have not come from soundbites, but genuine upgrades and improvements. He was absent from recent US government meetings, despite the fact that his token, ADA, had been tipped for inclusion in a cryptocurrency strategic reserve. Despite not being invited to meet with other crypto founders, he added that this is good for optics but not a sustainable, permanent policy.

This is odd as he has become somewhat of a diplomat for decentralized finance. He has been known to have spoken to lawmakers and heads of state on how useful a tool it can be. This has included trips to Japan to discuss AI and finance with the former Minister for Digital Transformation.  Yet the comment about soundbites may be somewhat contradictory. Hoskinson is a crypto founder who has been known to make music videos with Snoop Dogg.

One of Cardano’s major problems is that it is in a saturated marketplace, and apart from Hoskinson advocating for it, it has done little to differentiate itself from the pack. It has worked efficiently, but extremely slowly. For example, smart contracts were not available until four years after the blockchain launched.

For those on the inside, its programming language is apparently notoriously difficult to use. It has its smart contracts written in Plutus, which are also hard to create. Thus, usability for those making the programmes is an issue, and has meant it has failed to generate users.  This is easy to put in perspective. Ethereum has $46 billion in decentralized applications. Solana has $7 billion. Cardano has $287 million.

Hoskinson has been one of many voice that believes cryptocurrency is the future of international money and trade. He has said that uncertainty, and thus the volatility in cryptocurrency, are not necessarily a bad thing. He described it as “An alternative construction to put your money in regardless of the politics. The only option is blockchain”.

To forge ahead, Cardano needs to build an ecosystem. How Hoskinson decides to spark that can be done in several ways, either with AI or without. For those considering investing, it would pay to see how this plays out over the next few months and possibly even years.

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