Cardano is one of the most popular blockchains in the world, and its native cryptocurrency ADA is no different.
However, the entire crypto market has been in a bear market for almost a year since November 2021. This bear market has rendered most cryptocurrencies in the market more than 50% from their all-time highs, with some of them hitting lows as steep as 90% from their highs.
Cardano has also suffered in this manner, falling from a high of $3.1 to worth about $0.42 at the time of writing.
The Total Value Locked (TVL) in Cardano's decentralized finance ecosystem has dropped massively as well, hitting a low of $75 million from a high of $326 million recorded in march 2022. This drop constitutes a 70% dip.
Ethereum has always had competitors, with some even posing real threats to it in terms of dApp adoption, Defi applications, and even price (as crazy as that sounds).
However, one of the biggest competitors with Ethereum in terms of dApp applications is Cardano.
There are a total of 23 Cardano dApps, according to DappRadar. At the time of writing, 10 out of these dApps have seen a minimum 3% to 6% increase in their number of new users.
Out of these dApps, NFTJungle and ClaySwap have the lion's share of this upsurge of new users, with NFTJungle experiencing a 150% uptick and ClayNation experiencing an upsurge of 31.25%.
Ethereum currently doesn't stand a chance against Cardano because of a recent increase in newly acquired users. It is worth noting that the HOP protocol (a dApp on the Ethereum network) has seen an upsurge of new users as high as 3000% in the past. At the same time, about 16 others on the Ethereum network are suffering in terms of new user count.
However, Ethereum's dApp volume (a metric measuring how much value enters a DApp's smart contract) is far ahead of Cardano's. While Ethereum's POS Polygon bridge holds $3.93 billion, Cardano's highest-ever dApp volume was a measly $3.25 million.
The Total Value Locked (TVL) on the Cardano platform has also dropped about 76%.
For a better perspective, the Total Value Locked on a smart contract platform is the total amount of crypto or liquidity locked in that platform.
According to DeFilama, the TVL on Cardano is at a low of about $76 million after the effects of the crypto bear market, the massive inflation, and the war between Russia and Ukraine. This $76 million figure is low compared to the $326 million figure measured in March this year.
At the time of writing, the biggest holder of Cardano's TVL was a dApp called Minswap, with a value of about $39 million. Followed closely is WingRiders with a $15.7 million value and SundaeSwap with $14.5 million.
The largest blockchain by TVL is Ethereum, with over $30 billion in total value locked. Followed closely is Tron and then the Binance chain.
However, the general crypto community is highly bullish on Cardano, predicting a 33.5% increase still for Cardano by the end of October, putting the price at around $5.7.
Cardano's rise to $15 is by no means guaranteed. Still, judging by the previous price action on the cryptocurrency and the rate of adoption, Cardano may reach this price level in only a few years.
Disclaimer: The author's comments and recommendations are solely for educational and informative purposes. They do not represent any financial or investment advice. Always DYOR (do your own research)