Cardano is in the spotlight for over the last few weeks as a wave of developments and partnerships are unveiled. Meanwhile, ADA’s market value continues lurking.

Road to decentralization

David Desser, senior product manager at Cardano, recently revealed in a live AMA session that the company’s team is set to launch the incentivized testnet for Shelley, whose testnet went live in mid-June.

Related: Cardano team reveals details about the incentivized testnet that will bring staking to the network

Unlike traditional testnets, which are closed-off sandbox environment, incentivized testnets use real incentives in the form of staking and delegation rewards to drive participation. With Shelley’s incentivized testnet, the company will analyze how game theory and rewards are perceived by the users of the network.

Upon completion, Shelley is planned to be incorporated into Mainnet in multiple phases, which will pave the way for solving the centralization and proof-of-stake problem that the network currently faces. The goal is to make the ADA’s blockchain 250x more decentralized than other protocols, according to Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano.

As Cardano takes a significant step for a more decentralized, censorless, and trustless protocol, the company behind it, Input-Output Hong Kong (IOHK), is shifting its focus towards the real-world uses of blockchain technology.

In a blog post, IOHK disclosed details about a partnership with sneaker giant New Balance Athletic Inc. Both companies are collaborating to develop the “New Balance Realchain.” This will be an authentication system that aims to protect the authenticity of its collector’s edition shoes. The project will enable its users to easily access data that confirms whether a certain product is authentic.

“Bringing blockchain technology to global brands and mainstream retailers is a big step for decentralized technologies,” the company said in its blog post.

Despite the positive news surrounding ADA and the upcoming release of Cardano Wallet 1.7, its price has been consolidating for more than a month without clear signs of a breakout.

ADA technical analysis

On Sept. 24, Cardano plunged nearly 24 percent from a high of $0.047 to a low of $0.035. Since then, this cryptocurrency has been consolidating mostly between $0.037 and $0.043.

When looking at its 1-day chart, the Bollinger bands appear to be squeezing. Squeezes are indicative of periods of low volatility and are typically succeeded by periods of high volatility. The longer the squeeze the higher the probability of a strong breakout that defines the direction of the trend.

Even though this technical index does not necessarily specify whether ADA will move up or down, the lower and upper band could be used to estimate where it is heading next. Thus, ADA’s next major price swing will depend on its ability to trade outside of the trading range between $0.037 and $0.043.

Breaking below support could take it to $0.033 or $0.028. Meanwhile, surging above resistance will likely let it test the next price hurdles at $0.048 and $0.055.

ADA/USD by TradingView

Overall sentiment

Cardano is moving forward as it makes huge upgrades to its protocol that plans to make it more decentralized. On its way to decentralization, IOHK is set to establish different partnerships that will put this cryptocurrency on the path to mainstream adoption. Even though the firm has been known for slow development and constant product delays, the latest work is setting ADA on track. Now, it remains to be seen whether investors will value the effort put behind Cardano in the last few months increasing the demand for ADA.