• The Chang hard fork is set to go live on the mainnet next week, barring any setbacks
• Cardano already cleared the first Chang threshold regarding SPO readiness paving the way for the fork’s activation

The Cardano ecosystem is gearing up for a key milestone in the form of the Chang hard fork, which will strengthen the network’s scalability governance structure and overall performance. In fact, the Chang hard fork working group today proposed the target dates pertaining to the implementation of the hard fork.

Cardano-focused educational resource Intersect informed in a bulletin on X (Twitter) that the group has set a tentative target date of 27 August for Chang on the production mainnet. A final go/no-go decision on the hard fork will be communicated prior to that on Friday, 23 August.

The technical team also highlighted 3 September as the alternative ideal window for the hard fork, if the proposed dates are not viable.

Chang hard fork update

Chang will introduce governance and scalability improvements to Cardano by implementing the Cardano Improvement Proposal (CIP) 1694. The proposal empowers ADA holders with a more democratic say in the future development and upgrades of Cardano. On the technical side, the hard fork will enhance the network’s throughput and overall efficiency.

The desired thresholds for the implementation of the first phase of Chang hard fork are 70% (or more) of the nodes updating to v9.1.0 and at least 80% of exchange liquidity to effectively process transactions and operations. Last week, Cardano met the first threshold after attaining node readiness.

Exchange readiness metrics have been improving since, but liquidity still lags, with the same at 34.8% at press time as per Cardanoscan data. 21 exchanges have attained ‘Ready’ status to support the Chang hard fork while 19 others, including Binance, are still in the process of being so.

Meanwhile, 17 exchanges, including Bybit which accounts for a 5.42% exchange liquidity share, are yet to record any progress.

ADA/USDT technical analysis

The upcoming Chang hard fork is expected to hand Cardano (ADA) a much-needed boost in light of its displacement from the top-10 rankings based on market capitalization.

The dethroning of Cardano (ADA) by Tron (TRX) earlier this week marked the second time ADA has been flipped in the last five months, after being overtaken by Toncoin (TON) in May.

The lead-up to Chang’s implementation has already sparked a resurgence of optimism around the network. For instance, market intelligence platform Santiment observed this week that Cardano has seen the highest positive sentiments so far this year, notwithstanding its price struggles.

News of the Chang hard fork’s target dates have delivered a mild boost to ADA as far as the midweek’s spot market action is concerned too.

Cardano (ADA), at press time, was trading at $0.353, following a 6.82% uptick in the last 5 days.

On the 4-hour chart, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator showed strengthening upward momentum. The MACD line crossed above the Signal line on 19 August, indicating that momentum has been shifting in favor of the buyers.