Key Insights:
- Cardano’s Q1 2023 saw a 172 percent growth in DeFi TVL and a 261 percent increase in stablecoin volume.
- The platform’s treasury balance grew to 1.21B ADA and $460M in USD.
- While Cardano saw overall growth, it experienced declines in new addresses, daily transactions, and NFT transactions.
In the first quarter of 2023, Cardano’s TVL nearly tripled, and it made significant technological advances, according to a report by Messari, a crypto analytics company. There was a dramatic increase in the use of new stablecoins, improvements in network scalability, and VM compatibility on the PoS blockchain.
Cardano has reportedly adopted Layer-2 scaling solutions on its mainnet and is building sidechains like Milkomeda C1 and IOG’s EVM sidechain to improve cross-chain compatibility, as detailed in a recent study. The platform is also more accessible and user-friendly for programmers now that it supports Python, TypeScript, Marlowe, and Helios.
Cardano’s DeFi and stablecoin markets skyrocket
Cardano’s DeFi Total Value Locked (TVL) increased dramatically from Q4 2022’s $50.8M to Q1 2023’s $138.3M, a growth rate of 172 percent. There was also a 261% rise in the total amount of stablecoins traded on the platform, reaching $10 million, with Indigo’s IUSD and Djed’s DJED in the lead. The popularity of significant DEXs like Minswap, SundaeSwap, and WingRiders has fallen due to the proliferation of new protocols.
On April 18, 2023, one ADA token was worth $0.44, a 54 percent increase from the beginning of the year. In addition, with the acquisition of 100M ADA, the platform’s treasury balance has increased to 1.21M, a 9.1 percent increase in ADA terms, and a 66 percent increase in USD terms. Significant funds totaling $460M USD have been added to the Treasury’s accounts. This represents a $278M USD increase.
Despite overall growth, Cardano’s daily transactions and NFTs take a hit
Cardano’s average daily transactions increased by 10.6 percent despite the expansion, and the number of new addresses decreased by 71.5 percent quarter over quarter. The average daily volume of NFT transactions on the network declined by 27% in Q1 2018, while the average daily volume of unique buyers fell by 23%.
In addition, the Cardano Foundation has just released its first Annual Report, which details the project’s successes throughout 2022. According to the article, the Foundation has updated its delegation policy to persuade stake pool operators (SPOs) to provide the growing community with Cardano-building tools reliably. The Foundation has also said they have aligned the Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIPs) procedure with the best open-source practices.
