Cardano’s price seems to be undergoing a consolidation between $2.40 and $2.45, trading within the range and possibly getting ready for a breakout on the back of supporting fundamental developments related to the use of its recently launched smart contract functionality. At the time of writing, ADA/USD is trading around $2.40.

During the previous session, Cardano’s commercial arm EMURGO announced a joint venture with technology firm Blockchain 4A to form Astarter – an initiative focused on building DeFi services infrastructure on the blockchain network. The DeFi infrastructure hub will feature a launchpad, DEX, money market as well as tech service dApps on the network, leveraging the new features rolled out after the recent Alonzo hard fork.

In an announcement regarding the collaboration, CEO at EMURGO, Ken Kodama, noted, “Decentralized finance has appealed to the crypto community through its improved transparency, security, and credibility of processing financial transactions. The value of crypto assets under management in DeFi apps has risen sharply.”

In four days since its launch at the start of the week, Cardano’s blockchain has seen over 40,000 smart contracts being created, most of which are by developers working prior to the release of their dApps. Going by these numbers, we can expect an explosion of DeFi projects on the ecosystem, which could raise the adoption of its blockchain and send the value of ADA higher.

Following the excitement of the Alonzo upgrade, investors will now turn their attention towards the upcoming Cardano Summit scheduled to take place towards the end of this month. The Head of Brand and Comms at the Cardano Foundation, Sidney Vollmer, has already hinted that the company will unveil some key partnerships at the event, which could keep investors interested in the network and support a rally in ADA soon.

Key Levels to Watch

On the 4-hour chart of ADA/USD, moving averages and the MACD are suggesting a bearish bias among investors at the moment. However, the momentum indicator points to some interest among buyers as well.

Cardano’s price has been unable to crack the $2.50 pivot point which is essential for confirming a reversal in the sentiment. However, on the upside, the price does manage to hold above the immediate support at $2.09.