Cardano’s Chang Hard Fork: Where Is ADA on the Eve of Activation?
Cardano’s previous hard fork events did not generate any sustainable upward movement. ADA hit a weekly low of $0.338 this week, succumbing to the broader market’s bearish sentiment.
With the Chang hard fork just hours away, Cardano is on the verge of reaching a transformative milestone for the blockchain. The activation date for the first phase of the technical update was confirmed this week by Intersect, Cardano’s off-chain forum and discussion hub.
Chang #1, which will be launched on the mainnet on 1 September, represents an immutable and binding step in Cardano’s journey towards becoming a fully decentralised ecosystem, with the community directly involved in decision-making processes such as updating the protocol and allocating funding.
Community Governance and Decentralised Decision-Making
The first phase will enable community participation in blockchain governance by laying the groundwork with fundamental changes to the protocol. Additional features that require further testing and community consensus will be introduced in the second phase, scheduled for later this year. The Cardano community will be responsible for shaping the future of the network following the implementation of Chang.
The Cardano Improvement Proposal CIP-1694, which formalises various governance structures for the Cardano ecosystem, will be used to implement this transition. Overall, Chan’s upgrade is part of the latest era of the Cardano roadmap, Voltaire. In order to make Cardano a fully self-sufficient network, this era focuses on the introduction of voting and treasury systems.
Chang’s Readiness Metrics
Market participants, who have been closely following the upgrade over the past few weeks, have regained some optimism ahead of Chang’s activation. A successful implementation could have an impact on ADA’s market performance, as it could strengthen Cardano’s position in the competitive blockchain space.
The readiness metrics have not been fully met, although the activation thresholds have been met. A total of 42 exchanges have prepared their systems. Six are in the process and 10 had not yet joined the queue at the time of writing.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has confirmed in an X update the phase-out of his Genesis keys, which were already under the supervision of Cardano’s founders. The removal improves the network’s security and trustworthiness by ensuring no central authority can control or intervene in the blockchain through special privileges or backdoors.
ADA Price Spike in September?
Since April, ADA has been trading in a descending wedge. ADA bulls failed to break above immediate resistance at $0.40 on the 24th in the latest attempt to break out of the bullish descending wedge.
Despite a strong weekly close, the ADA/USDT pair has been subdued on the daily chart for most of this week.
Most recently, shares of ADA were trading at $0.34, down 10.54% in the last seven days. Traders see $0.40 resistance, coinciding with the 100-day simple moving average (SMA), as a key test. Should the price break above the $0.49 level, it would then move towards the critical $0.49 resistance level.
Nevertheless, historical data suggests that the enthusiasm surrounding previous difficult forkings has not translated into sustained positive action for ADA. Enthusiasm for the upcoming Chang’s event has therefore been dampened.
The surrounding negative sentiment could lead to selling pressure and exacerbate the prevailing downtrend, which in turn could drive the price of ADA lower. This would leave ADA vulnerable to a return to $0.31. During previous corrections, this level acted as an important floor.
By Leonardo Perez