Cardano Price is Bearish Despite Testnet Activation

Cardano (ADA) price fell over the weekend despite the platform launching its Incentivized Testnet on Sunday.

After touching USD 0.037 on Saturday, the coin is now trading at c. USD 0.036 and is down by 0.5% in the past 24 hours (15:30 AM UTC). The price is down by 6% in a week and by 17% in a month.

ADA price chart:

On December 15, Cardano activated the incentivized Staking Testnet of their Shelly Phase. “Shelly” is the second development stage of Cardano roadmap after “Byron,” the building stage. At this phase, Cardano’s goal is to decentralize the network. In a Twitter post, Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), the developer of Cardano, managed by Charles Hoskinson, said it is “committed to encouraging and supporting a healthy stake pool ecosystem.”

Cardano staking pools taking part in this test have since increased to over 240. However, with time, more staking pools should be launched. On the first day of operation, IOHK reported that over 140 Staking pools took part as IOHK delegated 1.1 billion ADA “across 48 different mining pools.”

Per Cardano’s roadmap, the “incentives scheme is designed to reach equilibrium around 1,000 stake pools.” Upon launch of the “Shelly,” it is expected that Cardano will be 50-100X more decentralized than other “prominent networks”.

A successful execution of the Shelly Testnet will be the first step towards decentralization. It would also prove that Cardano works as designed and staking as a feature is possible. For now, ADA coin holders who participated in this test will earn real rewards. According to the Cardano staking calculator, annual yields will be around 7%.

Meanwhile, as reported in November, the Cardano Foundation launched a new crypto payment solution, AdaPay, aimed at merchants.