Cardano's TVL soars with development activity, ADA price lags

Cardano network's Total Value Locked surpassed $150 million, reflecting positive usage from decentralized applications.
This month, Cardano was the top-performing blockchain in terms of development activities, based on Santiment data.
ADA price remains 92% below its all-time high of $3 seen in September 2021.

Cardano, a well-known Layer-1 Ethereum competitor, is inching closer to a new 2023 peak in terms of total value locked (TVL) even as its native token, ADA, lingers far from its all-time high. Recently, Cardano topped in monthly development activity, beating Polkadot and Kusama.

Cardano chain sees development activity, TVL increase

Cardano's Total Value Locked (TVL) has surpassed $151 million at the time of writing, signaling an increase in the network's utilization by decentralized applications. Based on DeFiLlama figures, Cardano is approaching the 2023 peak of around $200 million reached in July. An all-time high was achieved in March 2022, when the TVL went beyond $300 million.

Cardano TVL

A prominent crypto influencer, known as ADA whale on X, emphasized the correlation between TVL and ADA's price, suggesting that the former accurately reflects the platform's real activity.

At end of the day, the reason for anyone allocating to crypto near term to at very least include Cardano in their portfolio is best summarised with this (insofar as TVL isn’t manipulated and corresponds to actual activity, which it does on Cardano). It’s really not rocket science pic.twitter.com/P4AMdClemf
— ADA whale (@cardano_whale) October 13, 2023

In the Cardano ecosystem, Minswap is leading the pack of decentralized applications (dApps), followed by Indigo and Liqwid. Minswap, a decentralized exchange, alone contributes $40.4 million to its TVL.

Meanwhile, Cardano's appeal has extended in terms of development activity. In the last 30 days, Cardano emerged as the top-performing blockchain with 611.47 GitHub commits, as per an analysis by Santiment.

ADA price remains under pressure

While Cardano's development and TVL figures paint an optimistic picture, it is not immune to pressure from the broader market. Rising Bitcoin dominance, which recently surpassed 51%, is putting pressure on altcoins, including ADA, as per Glassnode co-founders under alias Negentropic on X, said, "To see the resurgence of the much-awaited Altcoins Season, a significant recovery will be essential."

ADA is still 92% below its all-time high of $3, as per CoinGecko figures. At the time of writing, it is trading at $0.24, with a 24-hour trading volume of around $97 million.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, known for his candid views against critics, called out a platform for labeling ADA the 'biggest loser' on the daily time frame. This came after ADA experienced a modest decline of 1.5% compared to other altcoins like Solana, which lost 4%.

Jenny, I'm not a bright man, but isn't 3.91 larger than 1.58? I don't know what biggest loser means... pic.twitter.com/IjFrOFomUH
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) October 12, 2023

While Cardano price faces challenges along with the broader crypto market, its TVL trend and active development activities showcase optimism. But ADA enthusiasts will likely have to await both the resurgence of an altcoin season, along with updates around Cardano's development to see a significant upside price move.

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