If you have been monitoring ADA’s price action in the last few days, you may have noticed that it has been experiencing a lot of sideways price action. This is unusual since Cardano is approaching its biggest upgrade ever that will introduce smart contracts, allowing its network to jump into the fast lane and become one of the leading smart contract blockchains.

Many special-use cryptocurrencies experience a significant price uptick in the run-up towards the implementation of a major network upgrade. Cardano is scheduled to launch smart contracts on September 12 but its performance has been quite subdued in the last few days. For example, it peaked at $3.10 a few days ago but has since then lost some of its gains.

ADA is currently trading at $2.72 after dropping by 6.49% in the last 24 hours and its weekly performance is down by 3.22%% which is an underperformance compared to the gains made by some of its rival networks.

Source: Binance

Why ADA has been subdued in the last few days

ADA was expected to continue its upward trajectory this week especially due to the upcoming major network upgrade. On the contrary, it has retreated below $3 and this is largely attributed to coordinated FUD regarding the Cardano network. Numerous social media profiles on Twitter and Reddit have been spreading a rumor that dapps running on Cardano can only perform one operation per block. Some of those accounts claim that they have tried using the smart contracts on the testnet and experienced unfavorable results.

Cardano’s founder Charles Hoskinson addressed the situation stating that the coordinated attack is likely from competing communities. He believes those attacks are from communities of other rival networks that are afraid that Cardano will negatively affect the blockchain networks they support. He also noted that his network has a computation layer that is easy to roll out.

The attack on Cardano might also be a coordinated attempt aimed at triggering a price drop for ADA so they can access it at a discounted price level. However, such claims might be detrimental to the network because they can potentially discourage projects from launching their dapps on the network even if the rumors are not true.

Hoskinson believes that communities supporting blockchain networks should be geared towards collaboration rather than unhealthy competition. Meanwhile, ADA is currently oversold at its current price tag according to the RSI and its buying volume has tapered significantly in the last few days. However, it also represents a good entry point especially considering the slight pullback and the upcoming event which will likely lead to a substantial price uptick when smart contracts are introduced.

Should Cardano’s community be worried about the state of the network?

Hoskinson confirmed that the network is running just fine and that the recent attacks are just aimed at fueling FUD and discouraging projects from joining the Cardano network. The testnet has so far yielded favorable results and Cardano is on track to roll out smart contracts in the next few days. The upgrade will pave way for healthy network growth and more value for the ADA token.