Cardano Price Prediction Ahead of Biggest Hard Fork Upgrade Since Vasil on July 18

Cardano (ADA) price is down by 1.68% today, July 16, despite the upcoming Van Rossem upgrade on the Cardano network on July 18. This hard fork will be the biggest upgrade on Cardano since the Vasil hard fork occurred on July 18.

Still, futures data suggests that buyers remain hesitant as short sellers dominate the market.

Cardano Van Rossem Hard Fork Set for July 18

The Cardano governance ratified the Van Rossem hard fork on July 13, and according to Intersect, the upgrade will go live on July 18. Infrastructure providers on Cardano are being urged to upgrade so that they can cross the hard fork.

Van Rossem will be the biggest upgrade on Cardano since the Vasil hard fork in 2022. It will reduce execution costs on Cardano so that the network becomes cheaper to use.

This upgrade is also laying the groundwork for Cardano to conduct the Leios upgrade before 2026 ends. Leios will be the next major upgrade on Cardano that could make the network 60 times faster.

The Van Rossem upgrade comes as Cardano whales increase their holdings of ADA. A previous Cardano price analysis by CoinGape noted that the wallets that have between 100,000 and 100 million ADA tokens have reached the highest level since 2023.

These purchases could signal bullish positioning ahead of this upcoming upgrade.

Cardano Price Remains Under Bearish Pressure

The looming Van Rossem upgrade has not boosted the sentiment around Cardano, because the price was down by 2.72% today, July 16.

That drop comes amid high selling pressure as suggested by the volume histogram bars that have been red for two straight days.

Cardano price is now testing resistance at the middle Bollinger band of $0.164. If it closes above this resistance, the price could move to the 61.8% Fib of $0.176.

But such gains might not occur unless buyers return because the AO bars that are red support a bearish long-term Cardano price forecast.

The AO bars have also turned negative, suggesting that bears are tightening their grip, and they could pull the price of ADA down to the lower Bollinger band of $0.137.

ADA Short Sellers Increase Their Positions Ahead of Van Rossem

Data from Coinglass shows that Cardano has a negative weighted funding rate of -0.0067. This negative rating suggests that there are more traders betting that Cardano price will drop than there are traders betting that it will increase.

The long/short ratio of 0.58 further shows that there is aggressive positioning by short sellers who are betting that ADA price will drop despite the upcoming Van Rossem hard fork.

The open interest has also increased by 4% to $421 million per Coinglass data, with this also suggesting that short sellers are still opening new positions betting that Cardano will keep dropping.