[Digital Today reporter Yoonseo Lee (이윤서)] Cardano formed a death cross on a short-term chart in late August. A rebound has continued, but caution is growing that the uptrend could end as a bull trap.

On Aug. 27 (local time), blockchain media outlet U.Today reported that on Cardano’s hourly chart the 50-day moving average (MA 50) fell below the 200-day moving average (MA 200), producing a short-term sell signal.

The signal is drawing attention because it came right after the recent rebound. ADA ended an 11-day decline early this month and rose for four consecutive trading days last week. It later climbed as high as $0.258 on Aug. 22, but pulled back somewhat after forming a peak.

The monthly trend remains positive. ADA has risen 26.10 percent in August, extending a 17 percent gain in July. It is up 2.27 percent over the past 24 hours and 9.61 percent on the week. But weekly gains narrowed somewhat as profit-taking emerged across major cryptocurrencies after last week’s sharp rise.

The macroeconomic environment is also a burden. Traders are increasing bets that reflect the possibility of rate hikes, a move that runs counter to low-rate expectations that had supported last week’s rise in cryptocurrencies. Kevin Warsh, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, will deliver his first keynote speech since taking office at Jackson Hole on Aug. 28. Markets are watching for signals related to monetary policy ahead of the Sept. 15-16 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

Separately, Leios, Cardano’s network throughput upgrade, passed an early milestone. The Earth phase of Leios ended after operating for 41 days on a public testnet. Cardano developer Input Output said Leios significantly increased Cardano’s transaction processing capacity above the current limit without changing its security model.

Leios reached about six times mainnet throughput. It also processed 54 percent of total traffic that reached the chain during the final few days after stabilization, and compared with actual mainnet traffic it recorded 18 times as many transactions and 3.3 times the data throughput.

Markets are seeing mixed signals between price indicators and network improvements. In the short term, the death cross, profit-taking and rate concerns are weighing on ADA. The Leios test results, however, show Cardano continues to push for scalability improvements. The next focus will be whether the short-term price correction continues or whether expectations for the network upgrade reignite buying.