What Happened: Institutions appear to have favored Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA) this week as the altcoin recorded $1.3 million in inflows, even as Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) focused funds saw major outflows.
According to data from CoinShares, digital asset investment products saw a sixth consecutive week of outflows which cumulatively amounted to $115 million.
Bitcoin recorded $22 million in weekly outflows, while Ethereum lost $1.1 million over the week.
Meanwhile, institutions increased their exposure to Cardano. The Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain’s native token boasted the highest inflows over the past week, recording $1.3 million in weekly flows.
Polkadot (CRYPTO: DOT) and Stellar (CRYPTO: XLM) also recorded minor inflows of $400,000 each.
Why It Matters: ADA rallied as much as 35% over the past seven days, briefly reaching a high of $2.25 on Monday. This week’s rally was the first time the altcoin broke the $2 mark since May when it hit an all-time high of $2.46.
The positive price action comes in anticipation of Cardano’s new series of upgrades which will bring smart contract functionality to the network.
#Cardano #smartcontracts are coming…
We’re on track to meet the projected HF dates for both testnet & mainnet #Alonzo upgrade, as Nigel outlined in last week update👇
A new era is set to begin on Sunday 12th September 2021 🌅 $ADA pic.twitter.com/HrdrqYizhP
— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) August 17, 2021
The Alonzo Hard Fork is set to be completed on Sept. 12 and will go live on the testnet as early as Sept. 1.
“Started to fill bids from 2.05 – 1.93 on $ADA,” commented popular crypto trader Pentoshi.
“Alonzo HF confirmed in 3 weeks, smart contracts going live, allegedly a lot of projects launching. FA is there.”
Read also: What is Cardano?
Based on his technical analysis, Pentoshi claims that ADA has been one of the strongest projects to date and new all-time highs are around the corner.
Something like 72% of the total supply of $ADA is staked as well so easy to see a demand > supply dynamic in the weeks to come
— Pentoshi 🐧 Wont DM You (@Pentosh1) August 17, 2021
