One of the biggest bets made by Charles Hoskinson, the founder and main developer of the Cardano network, is that the Vasil upgrade would be a game changer. The idea behind the delay, allegedly, was to wait for the implementation of the Ethereum merge on September 15 and follow it up with their upgrade to lure away some users and developers from the second-biggest blockchain network in the market.
However, the bet did not pay off. Three weeks after the Vasil upgrade, the price of ADA is tanking to its lowest price in 2022.
The upgrade was not good enough
When Ethereum’s merger concluded, the price of ETH dropped by 12% in just six hours. The initial dip was caused by massive selloffs, but the continued reduction of price was a sign of a much bigger trend with investors not sure about the future of the network. While Bitcoin managed to keep its cash flow positive, Ethereum was leaking money at an alarming pace with 6 consecutive weeks of negative cash flow.
Cardano was supposed to get the maximum from its upgrade. The optimization of block size and new changes that lay the groundwork for future improvements were supposed to bring more attention to the competitor of Ethereum, but it was short-lived. The price jumped to $0.48 (a 10.5% increase) on September 22, but it was only downhill from there.
A 14.2% decrease in price since September 22 and a 23.5% decrease compared to the September high are two very concerning changes in the market situation around ADA. The token is tanking despite the upgrade. Even speculators are incapable of shaking up the market amidst the crypto winter and bad news from around the globe.
Cardano is in a very tight spot right now
If Charles Hoskinson wants to be competitive with his network and pose any threat to Ethereum, he should focus on delivering more upgrades at a faster pace. Right now, the network is just not impressive to investors and even app builders may soon start thinking about greener pastures.