Cardano’s bull flag is appearing despite a gloomy outlook in the broader cryptocurrency market. During the past week, ADA has gained by more than 10%, with the gains being attributed to the upcoming Vasil hard fork upgrade and the token’s listing on Robinhood.

Vasil upgrade trigger’s ADA’s 12% gains 

The Cardano community has been anxiously awaiting the Vasil hard fork update. After multiple delays, Input Output Global (IOG) has announced that the Vasil upgrade will go live on September 22, which will be exactly one week after the Ethereum Merge on September 15.

The Vasil upgrade was initially scheduled to happen in June 2022 but has been rescheduled twice. IOG said the three critical mass indicators needed to realize the upgrade had not been met.

Cardano developers expect the upgrade to boost the network’s scalability and lower fees on the hard fork. It marks the first major upgrade on Cardano since the Alonzo hard fork happened in September last year. Cardano’s founder, Charles Hoskinson, said this was just part of its roadmap, and more developments would happen in 2023.

The Vasil upgrade news seems to replenish investor confidence in Cardano. The token has recorded a 12% gain during the past week, according to data from CoinGecko.

Before the Cardano developers confirmed September 22 as the hard date for this upgrade, ADA was trading at around $0.43. However, it has since registered a steady uptrend, and at the time of writing, ADA was trading at $0.486.

The Cardano Relative Strength Index (RSI) for ADA is currently at neutral zones, showing that despite the bullish flag created during the past week, ADA is yet to reach the overbought levels.

The news surrounding the Vasil upgrade is prompting more people to buy Cardano. ADA usually has a trend of gaining whenever there is a crucial upgrade on the network, which could soon head to $1. For instance, on September 2 last year, shortly after the Vasil hard fork upgrade, ADA shot to a new all-time high of $3.09.

The same trend could be replicated after Vasil goes live. However, before buying ADA, one needs to be cautious because of the overall volatility in the crypto market. During the past 24 hours, the global crypto market cap has dipped slightly. Therefore, ADA could fail to rebound to the expected highs because of the broader market pullback.

Cardano goes live on Robinhood

The Vasil upgrade is not the only positive piece of good news surrounding Cardano. On August 31, ADA was listed on the Robinhood exchange. Robinhood is a platform that is quite popular with crypto day trading, and the news of the listing triggered a buzz around the token.

ADA’s gains over the past week could also be a reaction to the listing. Like Coinbase, Robinhood is a publicly traded company in the US, and this listing has added credibility to the token.

The other good news surrounding Cardano is the release of the first DeFi lending and borrowing protocol on the network. Aada Finance will be the first DeFi lending and borrowing platform on Cardano, and it will help build Cardano’s total value locked (TVL).