Cardano sees significant growth in value locked, climbs to 9th position

The Cardano blockchain ecosystem has experienced a significant uptick in the total value locked (TVL) over the past few weeks, indicating a growing interest in Ethereum alternatives like Solana and Avalanche.

This shift is likely due to crypto investors and users exploring other blockchains for potentially higher returns and more efficient capital allocation.

As of early this week, the TVL of all projects based on Cardano has escalated to over $440 million, surpassing the previous peak of $330 million set in April, according to DeFi Llama.

This growth has been particularly notable in the last week, with key projects like the lending protocol Indigo and the on-chain exchange Minswap witnessing their TVL surge by over 50% to nearly $100 million each.

The Djed stablecoin, pegged to the U.S. dollar, has seen its supply increase by over 45% in the past week. This spike is indicative of significant capital inflows toward the token as investors seek to capitalize on its yields.

Meanwhile, smaller protocols such as LendFi and Spectrum Finance have reported a 90% surge in value locked, suggesting that users are increasingly willing to take riskier positions.

The on-chain growth within the Cardano ecosystem has also positively impacted the price of its native ADA token, used to pay for network activity.

ADA has surged approximately 17% in the past 24 hours, contributing to a near 80% gain in the past month. Data also indicates a 100% growth in leveraged futures bets on ADA price volatility during the same period.

Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem is experiencing a surge akin to other blockchain networks. The total amount of capital locked or staked across all decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols reached a significant milestone of $50 billion at the beginning of December for the first time in six months.

This surge has been led by protocols within the Solana ecosystem, reflecting the growing optimism around the blockchain in recent weeks.