The ADA price exceeded $2 as the upcoming Alonzo hardfork with smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain is nearing. Now Cardano ranks third in the ranking of cryptocurrencies by capitalization.

Cardano gained more than 20% in price within the last 24 hours, exceeding $2 per coin. ADA is trading above this level for the first time since May. The capitalization of the cryptocurrency exceeded $65 billion as a result of the price growth. Currently, Cardano stands on the third line in the CoinMarketCap cryptocurrency rating by capitalization. According to this indicator, Cardano overtook Tether, losing only to bitcoin and Ethereum.

The ADA growth is related to speculative expectations of investors who are waiting for the launch of smart contracts on the Cardano network. On August 13, Charles Hoskinson, founder of IOHK, which develops the Cardano project, is expected to unveil the exact date of the upcoming hardfork that will launch smart contracts on the network. ADA holders positively assess the project's achievements after the publication of the project development strategy at the end of May 2021 and expect further successes, which will affect the growth of the coin's rate.

The Alonzo hardfork and smart contract launch on the Cardano mainnet is expected to take place by September 2021 after going through several more testing phases.

After the launch of smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain, various decentralized financial applications will be able to be deployed, first of all, the arrival of DEX format trading platforms on the Cardano blockchain is expected.

Earlier, the Alonzo testnet entered the Purple phase, which opens up access to the testnet for everyone. The Alonzo testnet is now publicly available. It is open to all participants in the innovative Plutus program, all betting pool operators and exchanges.