Cardano is soaring high, reaching $3 for the first time. The cryptocurrency's bullish performance could be credited to the upgrades developers have been rolling out.

With its growing strength, can ADA beat ethereum as the second-biggest cryptocurrency?

Cardano ADA Alonzo Upgrades

Cardano's ADA cryptocurrency is skyrocketing, hitting $3 for the first time on Thursday, September 2. This was propelled after developers started rolling out upgrades that would allow "smart contracts" to be built on the network, according to Business Insider.

It reached an all-time high of $3.09 earlier, exciting investors as to how the crypto token will perform moving forward.

The major network upgrades have a codename: Alonzo. The Alonzo upgrades had been lunch on a test network Wednesday night and Thursday morning, coinciding with ADA's jump. Investors and traders could expect the full launch later in September.

Smart contracts are pieces of code that allow people to enter into financial agreements without needing a centralized party. And in the Alonzo upgrades, smart contracts will be built on the network, making the Cardano blockchain more attractive to a wider set of users.

Given these new upgrades, Cardano positions itself more as a rival to Ethereum. ETH already offers smart contracts on its blockchain, which has drawn increasing institutional investor interest because it offers a range of potential uses in financial services, Business Insider explained.

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Cardano ADA Price Predictions: Flipping Ethereum

Currently, ADA is the third-largest cryptocurrency in the market. Bitcoin and Ether still reign as the two largest cryptocurrencies but the incredible growth of ADA is impossible to ignore.

Over the last 30 days, it was able to climb more than 130 percent, and over the last year, it was able to grow by 2,300 percent, Market Insider explained. Its market capitalization has increased to $92.4 billion, replacing BNB in the third-largest spot.

According to FX Street, Cardano is expected to flip Ethereum with a 4x rally. This is after its 187 percent increase in market capitalization in just one month.

If it continues to rally and it rallies consistently, analysts see the altcoin surpass ETH's market cap. Realistically, ADA could be targeting a 4x increase, as Independent Analyst Lark Davis pointed out.

The four-fold increase brings Cardano's market capitalization up to par with ETH's and sets up the altcoin at an ideal position to take Ethereum's spot as the second-largest crypto.

Analyst Tai Zen said that though the time it may take to reach $5 from $0.5 took long, the time taken for ADA to go from $5 to $10 will be shorter.

One feature Cardano is opposed to including in its update is a burn mechanism, as founder Charles Hoskinson is against creating artificial deflation and supply shock to drive the altcoin's price higher, FX Street said.

Should it set itself up for a 400 percent breakout, it is very much likely that the proof-of-stake blockchain network will flip Ethereum and claim its spot.

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