Recently, trading volumes for the ADA token of Cardano have surged dramatically, with daily averages reaching around $720 million in February and surpassing $1.4 billion in March.
This surge was ignited by a social media statement from U.S. President Donald Trump, where he included ADA among the tokens to be part of the country’s strategic cryptocurrency reserve.
While Cardano is basking in newfound mainstream visibility, this layer-1 blockchain has been incrementally establishing itself as a significant player in the crypto space since its launch in late 2017.
Adoption Stats
The market cap for the ADA token stands at $25.6 billion. However, what’s particularly impressive is the data behind it; reports indicate that the Cardano blockchain boasts over 5 million unique wallets and 1.3 million delegators, with thousands of new wallets being generated daily.
Currently, the blockchain holds $329 million in total value locked (TVL), although the CEO of the Cardano Foundation, Frederik Gregaard, has suggested that this metric may be overly prioritized by the crypto community.
Instead, he emphasizes “non-value transactions” linked to individuals engaging in real-world – albeit non-financial – activities on the blockchain, such as minting decentralized IDs, tracking metadata, and documenting records. According to him, these activities are flourishing on Cardano.
“I’m advocating to ensure that 50% of all activity is classified as non-value transactions,” Gregaard remarked.
A notable example of this ethos is Cardano’s collaboration with Veritree, where the Cardano community contributed over 1 million ADA tokens for the planting of 1 million mangrove trees in Kenya, with each transaction verified and logged on the blockchain.
Additionally, last week, the Cardano Foundation announced a partnership with SERPRO, Brazil’s largest state-owned IT company, to promote blockchain adoption across South America. SERPRO handles 33 billion transactions each year for approximately 90% of Brazil’s federal administration, and 8,000 of its employees will receive blockchain training.
Cardano’s approach contrasts with platforms like Solana and numerous layer-2 networks, such as Base, which focus heavily on TVL and trending movements like memecoins and NFTs.
While TVL on Solana skyrocketed from $2.2 billion to over $10 billion in 2024, Cardano’s modestly grew from $445 million to $537 million during the same timeframe.
DeFi on Cardano
Gregaard has stated that although his focus is on practical use cases, the blockchain still features a vibrant DeFi environment beneath the surface.
Minswap serves as Cardano’s main decentralized exchange (DEX), with total trading volume reaching $3.4 billion this month, including an impressive $271 million just in December, according to DefiLlama data showing.
There are also several lending protocols such as Liqwid, Lenfi, and Optim Finance, with total value in Cardano’s lending market exceeding $116 million.
However, Gregaard maintains that his primary goal is to ensure financial transactions do not exceed 50%, aligning with the non-profit mission of the Cardano Foundation, even if it means tempering potential explosive growth from hype-driven trends like memecoins.
Cardano Foundation, Hoskinson, and Emurgo Dynamics
Upholding this mission does present some challenges, primarily due to the involvement of three main entities operating the blockchain: the Cardano Foundation, Charles Hoskinson’s IOG, and Emurgo. The latter two are businesses, which can create some tension with the non-profit Foundation.
“The purpose of having a non-profit is to facilitate long-term decision-making, which differs significantly from making immediate decisions,” Gregaard noted.
Some of this tension was highlighted by an anonymous member of the Cardano community in December, who wrote an email outlining their perspective on the future path and how the entities behind Cardano were at odds.
“The sudden surge of activity from the CF is part of a larger strategic initiative—aimed at undermining Charles, IOG, Intersect, and the broader governance framework,” the email reported.
“It has been a challenging journey, but I agree with some of the points raised by the whistleblower,” Hoskinson replied in his response on X.
On the other hand, Gregaard took a more diplomatic approach regarding any potential disagreements.
“There are no financial exchanges occurring between us, but we work closely in collaboration,” he said.
“We occasionally attend conferences together and share booth spaces. That’s about as close as our affiliations get, which is quite different from what you see with the Ethereum Foundation or Tezos Foundation, where they effectively control the treasury and direct disbursements.”
“Conversely, we [the Cardano Foundation] act as the liability shield for the community and the blockchain. This means we manage interactions with the SEC, the CSDC, and the FMA, and I played a key role in negotiating MICA with the European Parliament.”