Cardano (ADA) Sees a Pullback as Optimism in Crypto Market DipsCardano’s price is experiencing a bit of a pullback in early trading on Thursday, sliding lower as crypto king Bitcoin sees price consolidation around the $48,000 mark. At the time of writing, ADA/USD is trading at around $2.63.

On the fundamentals’ front, there are several exciting developments underway in the world’s third largest cryptocurrency based on market capitalization even as the world gears up for its major network upgrade in a few weeks from now. For starters, Cardano has finally, officially been made available for trading in Japan after overcoming strict regulatory challenges. Japan’s most popular crypto exchange, BitPoint, has announced the listing of the ADA token on its platform.

Meanwhile, the Cardano Foundation – the non-profit organization backing the blockchain, has launched the first analytics and compliance solution for the network. The AML/CFT analytics solution will be provided by blockchain analytics firm Confirm and will offer a significant boost to Cardano’s adoption in regulated financial markets.

In more encouraging news, Cardano could soon have its first sidechain to enable interoperability with Ethereum, thanks to dcSpark. The company is planning to launch a sidechain called Milkomeda (M1), a bridge network that can connect these two blockchains together and allow wrapped Cardano assets to function on Ethereum’s network. This development will increase the blockchain’s popularity among DeFi projects and could be deployed shortly after the rollout of the Alonzo upgrade.

Meanwhile, on the technical front, leading crypto analyst and trader Benjamin Cowen has forecast a strong rally which could take Cardano’s price higher by as much as 624$. He expects the ADA price to surge to as high as $20, riding the optimism that the upcoming network upgrade which will equip it with smart contract capabilities will bring.

Key Levels to Watch

On the H4 price chart of ADA/USD, we see a bearish bias among the smaller timeframe moving averages and the MACD. On the other hand, the larger MAs and the momentum suggest an interest among buyers as well.

Even as its slides lower, Cardano’s price is holding above the pivot point at $2.43, although buyers have some way to go until the first resistance level at $2.99. However, in the event of further bearish pressure, we could see the price slide lower towards the pivot point, in which case we should monitor the immediate support at $2.14.