Billionaire investor Mike Novogratz has praised the Cardano (ADA) community for their passion, shortly after claiming he did not understand why the cryptocurrency’s market capitalization was so high.

Cardano’s price exploded over 1,400% last year and is now trading above $2 according to CryptoCompare data, partly because it’s soon launching an upgrade to its network that will roll out smart contracts.

Bringing smart contracts to Cardano will allow the cryptocurrency to compete with other networks such as Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum and potentially capture some of the interest surrounding the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.

The cryptocurrency’s rise saw it briefly surpass Binance Coin (BNB) to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Novogratz drew the attention of Cardano’s community after responding to a tweet asking why the network was worth so much with an implication it was a mystery to him.

When a user questioned whether Novogratz had done any research, the CEO responded he spoke to “twenty of the smartest people” he knows in the cryptocurrency space, and none of them “saw cardano having traction with devs [developers].” Even Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson responded to the billionaire.

After receiving so many responses, Novogratz praised Cardano proponents for their passion but noted he has no position in the cryptocurrency and believes Terra (LUNA) or Solana (SOL) could be better alternatives.

He added, however, that investors “don’t have to catch every trade,” and noted he was “not wishing any ill will on team $ADA.” Last month, the billionaire had said he thinks Cardano is a “weird cult.” In response, Hoskinson said Novogratz’ words came because did not see a “backdoor to get in at a favorable price or manipulate the market like the rest of the VC coins. Somehow fair, transparent, community-led cryptocurrencies are “cults” I’ll remember that Mike.”

Cardano’s Alonzo hard fork is set to launch later this year. Hoskinson has confirmed that after the upgrade smart contracts will be available on the cryptocurrency’s network, and added that with time the infrastructure on Cardano will only get better

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