The Cardano platform is approaching the Vasil Hard Fork scheduled as the remaining candidate 1.35.3 nodes have generated over 94% of the blocks. While many expect the price of ADA to soar, the two most anticipated events might reverse the script for the entire industry.
The Ethereum community has long heralded the Merge as a significant improvement to the underlying infrastructure of the network. Besides reducing its negative environmental effect, the PoS consensus protocol will provide its native token Ether (ETH) with staking.
The crypto space has been on the hunt for several weeks due to the vicinity of two crucial events. On September 22nd, the Vasil hard fork will be complete, while the long-awaited Ethereum Merge is ready.
The first step toward change is the starting point for higher efficiency and scalability on the network. The second-largest crypto asset by market capitalization was recently trading at USD 1,755 amid a significant bullish trend. Therefore, the price might spiral up, exceed the barrier near USD 1,800, and settle near USD 2,000 in the short term.
Investors believe the Merge can help the value of the ETH to grow, evident in the sharp increase in loans. They have borrowed more than USD 1 billion worth of coins so far.
The developers behind Core Ethereum plan to continue to improve the open-source network after the Merge. They aim to reduce the costs of transactions even further and increase performance and security.
Vitalik Buterin has already speculated that nobody would see the full effects of the Merge for some time. The creator of Ethereum estimated that the price of ETH would not change for six to eight months.
The Cardano Hard Fork Is Now the Focus of Attention
According to recent information, the Cardano platform is rapidly approaching the Vasil Hard Fork scheduled for September 22nd. The remaining candidate nodes (1.35.3) have generated over 94% of the blocks on the mainnet.
Binance, MEXC, BitTrue, Gate.io, BTC Turk, OKX, and WhiteBit, reported they are preparing for the upcoming event. Fifty percent of the most popular Cardano dApps are also ready for pre-production, while the rest continue testing. Over 3,000 scripts have appeared on Plutus, while nearly a thousand projects are underway on Cardano.
Many expect the price of ADA to skyrocket in the short term as market optimism and development efforts increase. That would provide the necessary boost for investors and the overall crypto market. Consequently, the two most anticipated events might reverse the script for the entire industry, helping the fourth quarter to strengthen.
While the community waits for the Vasil hard fork, the Cardano Input Output builder has progressed significantly toward it. Ninety-five percent of the blocks have already emerged from 1.35.3 nodes while the network must continue the upgrade to reach the 75% threshold. Since September 12th, most leading liquidity exchanges have integrated Vasil or have started preparing for it.
Meanwhile, ADA is trading at around 0.46843 and has accumulated a 3.9% loss over the last 24 hours. While its daily trading volume is above USD 814.14 million, its market capitalization is about USD 11.54 billion, according to CoinGecko.
By Alexander Salazar
