Even after a major technological upgrade in September, Cardano (ADA 3.31%) continues to fall short of investor expectations. Once one of the top five cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, Cardano is now at a very real risk of falling out of the top 10.
There is growing concern that the price of Cardano, once holding steady in the $0.50 to $0.60 range during the summer, could drop below $0.30 unless something changes quickly.
The good news is that there are at least three different catalysts that in the short to medium term could lift Cardano's current price of $0.41. If any of these catalysts come to fruition, then the time to buy Cardano is now. Buy the dip and don't look back.
1. The Voltaire factor
Cardano has a very public road map for future development that investors can easily follow. It now is in the fourth phase of this development, which has focused on scaling up the blockchain for growth.
At an event in Scotland scheduled for Nov. 18 and 19, Cardano is widely expected to kick off the fifth phase of this road map, known as Voltaire. The Voltaire era of Cardano aims to provide additional pieces required for its network to become self-sustaining, including the introduction of a voting and treasury system.
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At the event, known as IO ScotFest, Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson will give a keynote speech in which he will outline what comes next for the crypto, with a focus on Voltaire. If investors like what he has to say, and are fully behind this next stage of growth, that could lead to at least a short-term rally in Cardano's price.
2. The FTX factor
While Cardano has been one of the top cryptocurrencies by market capitalization for the past several years, one curiosity has always been that it is not listed for trading on the popular FTX cryptocurrency exchange. You can buy and sell Cardano on, say, Coinbase (COIN 0.69%), but not on FTX.
That could change in the coming weeks, with the head of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, saying that the process is coming soon, possibly within the next three months. With an FTX listing, trading in Cardano will become easier and more liquid, and there will be fewer if any nagging questions hanging over it.
3. New launches: Hydra and Djed
Cardano recently launched Hydra, a super-efficient Layer 2 scaling solution for processing blockchain transactions. Each Hydra "head" can process 1,000 transactions per second (TPS). Given the way these Hydra heads can be stacked together, it could lead to a theoretical processing speed of 1 million TPS.
That speed is a sort of holy grail in the crypto world, and even Ethereum (ETH 0.69%) hasn't been able to reach it, despite constant assurances by one of its founders, Vitalik Buterin, that 1 million TPS is coming in Ethereum 2.0. This type of very robust processing speed could be something that excites investors.
CRYPTO: ADA
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The other major launch is a new algorithmic stablecoin known as Djed. This stablecoin has been in the works now for almost four years, and it looks like it could be released by the end of November. Having a native stablecoin for its blockchain would be huge for Cardano, since it would enable it to become a bigger player in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi).
What happens on Nov. 18?
The date to keep an eye on is Nov. 18. That is when Hoskinson will give his big keynote address at IO ScotFest in Edinburgh. He has already teased this keynote address online, saying that investors should watch this date carefully.
He could make a major announcement about any of the three catalysts above. Or he could really shake things up by following up on his earlier idea of pitching Twitter on a bold project to migrate Dogecoin (DOGE 0.45%) over to Cardano.
Clearly, there are a number of short-term catalysts that could move the needle with Cardano. The big caveat here is that the big tech upgrade in September didn't have much of an impact on its price, so investors clearly don't care about wonky, technical improvements. They want big, splashy moves that show that the crypto can compete head-to-head with a major rival like Ethereum. If you're a Cardano backer, you better hope that it can deliver exactly that on Nov. 18.
