Cardano Price Hits All-Time High, Overtakes Binance Coin as Third-Most Valuable Crypto

Cardano (ADA), the native cryptocurrency powering Charles Hoskinson's public blockchain, has hit a fresh all-time high and has surpassed Binance's native token in total market capitalization.

As of press time, ADA's market capitalization stands at $80.7 billion compared to Binance coin's (BNB) $72.1 billion, data from provider Messari shows.

ADA's price is up a staggering 19% on the day and is continuing its drive from Thursday's run where it came close to setting fresh price highs. The crypto has been on a tear in recent weeks and is up 150% from July 21 lows of $1.

ADA is currently changing hands for around $2.49 after reaching its record high of $2.55 during the Asia trading hours.

Strong levels of daily buyer volume – the most since the end of May – are matching price action on the way up signaling demand in the strength and conviction of ADA's trend.

It would appear the Alonzo upgrade is having a significant impact on investor sentiment. The upgrade seeks to usher in smart-contract functionality and address what critics have described as one of the network’s most glaring deficiencies.

The upgrade is slated for Oct. 1, though some are betting it will overshoot and release sometime later.

Read more: Grayscale Adds Cardano to Its Digital Large Cap Fund

Cardano has been through multiple developmental phases including the foundational phase Byron and decentralized phase Shelley which saw the introduction of delegated staking. According to the Cardano roadmap, smart contracts will go live when the project enters its third era, Goguen.

Cardano was founded by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson in 2017 and aims to directly compete with Ethereum and other decentralized application platforms as a more scalable, secure and efficient alternative.