The price of ADA, the native cryptocurrency of the Cardano Blockchain project, went up more than 20% this Friday, reaching a new price record and conquering a higher position among the cryptocurrencies with the largest market capitalization.

Cardano hits new price record and secures third largest cryptocurrency spot

In an impressive bull run, the Cardano token recorded an all-time price high of $2.56. The surge led it to outperform Binance’s native cryptocurrency Binance Coin (BNB) in terms of market capitalization.

At press time, ADA’s market capitalization is $82.2 billion, several billions above BNB, at $74.2 billion. The price of ADA has risen a staggering 28% in the last 7 days and is trading around $2.4 at the time of writing.

The meteoric rise comes just one week after Cardano’s cryptocurrency conquered fourth place in the cryptocurrency rankings; outperforming stablecoin Tether (USDT).

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Now, ADA is positioned just below its main rival Ethereum (ETH), and the flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC).

On the other hand, the number of addresses maintained by ADA and recording profits rose from 80% to 100%; while the number of “hodlers”, or users who hold the cryptocurrency for the long term, currently stands at 226,000 addresses.

$ADA blasted through the previous ATH propelled by the anticipated launch of smart contracts

A recap of the performance YTD
1,304.71% price increase
1,.484m new holders (233% increase)
Addresses in profit increased from 80% to 100%
Record number of hodlers (226k) pic.twitter.com/z2djfMGnG3

— IntoTheBlock (@intotheblock) August 20, 2021

ADA’s price hike is primarily driven by high community expectations around the upcoming Cardano network upgrade, which will usher in the long-awaited smart contract functionality on that platform.