The Proof-of-Stake Cardano surged 18% today smashing past $2 for the first time and hitting its new all-time high. Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson said it is 1.6 million times more energy-efficient than Bitcoin.
After this week’s major market correction, the cryptocurrency market, especially altcoins, has recovered strongly. Earlier today, Cardano (ADA) price surged all the way to its new all-time high of $2.18. The Cardano (ADA) valuations touched $70 billion making it the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap unsettling Dogecoin (DOGE).
ADA Price Changes
Cardano’s 2021 performance has surprised crypto investors. The ADA price surge for 2021 has been even higher than altcoin king Ethereum (ETH). The ADA price has appreciated nearly 13 times registering a massive 1200% return year-to-date. On the other hand, Ethereum‘s year-to-date gains stand at 450%.
Cardano has been undergoing major network developments over the last few months. Its Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism makes it more efficient than its Proof-of-Work peers like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). In an interview last month with Forbes, Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of Cardano’s parent group Input-Output Global (IOG), said that Cardano is 1.6 million times more energy-efficient than Bitcoin. He added:
“The advantage of proof of stake is that because you don’t have that gargantuan overhead and energy expenditure for deciding who gets to make a block, it means you can put a lot of your magic in the other two stages. So you end up getting protocols that are much lighter and massively more energy efficient. Cardano, for example, is 1.6 million times more energy efficient at the moment than bitcoin.“
After Elon Musk’s Tesla dropping Bitcoin (BTC) payments citing energy usage concerns, Cardano’s parent IOHK took this opportunity to make a subtle pitch.
"Energy inefficiency is built into bitcoin's DNA" – @IOHK_Charles is in @Independent commenting on bitcoin's energy usage. #Cardano uses, and will only ever use, the equivalent energy of a family home. Read more here #cryptocurreny @adamndsmith https://t.co/mEE1mTJOYE
— Input Output Media (@IOHKMedia) May 13, 2021
In addition, Cardano has been making big inroads in African countries like Tanzania and Ethiopia to establish blockchain-based infrastructure. The Cardano infrastructure will help to form blockchain-based digital identities, mobile internet connections, and educational infrastructure.
Bitcoin (BTC) Struggles to Cross $50,000
After crashing under $50,000 and losing its trillion-dollar status, Bitcoin (BTC) continues to remain under pressure. The Bitcoin (BTC) dominance in the market has dropped to as low as 40%. At press time, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading 2.59% down at a price of $49,003 with a market cap of $908 billion.
While most of the altcoins have bounced back after this week’s crash, Bitcoin is struggling to rise again. The recent drop of Bitcoin from Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) has caused other giants to rethink its adoption. However, while Tesla has dropped Bitcoin payments, it holds a major amount of BTC it purchased from its reserve cash.
The company said that it continues to believe in the Bitcoin future and thinks that it has a bright future. However, it added that Tesla will be open to considering other cryptocurrencies that consume <1% of BTC energy/transaction.
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