Cardano (ADA) Aims to Show Its Progress, Especially After Boasting the New Features of Its Chang Hard Fork

The network expanded its smart contract activity in August, trying to catch up with other L1 chains.

Cardano (ADA) smart contract transactions increased by 31% in August compared to July, reaching 31% more smart contract transactions. Simple transactions also saw a significant increase, expanding by 49% last month.

The network activity and smart contract expansion comes as Cardano prepares for the complete rollout of the Chang hard fork, with most nodes upgrading in August.

Cardano’s August 2024 On-Chain Stats ?We saw steady growth across the @Cardano ecosystem last month—more transactions, more wallets, more native tokens.

Onward and upward! pic.twitter.com/fFWes0d0jo

— Cardano Foundation (@Cardano_CF) September 9, 2024

Cardano is also expanding the count of its Direct Representatives (DReps) in early September. The representatives are registering directly on the platform and will have the task of maintaining the Cardano rules.

DReps can register with a 500 ADA deposit, and as of September 9, there are close to 400 representatives on the list. DRep are already starting personal campaigns to connect with builders and offer them representation and votes.

Cardano lags in stablecoin adoption, user count

The Cardano network still lags in terms of daily active wallets. The chain achieved a one-month peak at 52K daily active addresses, less than 10% compared to more active chains like Ethereum, Solana and even Toncoin.

The Cardano network still had a turnover of above $19B in value during the market peak in March, and $5.75B in transaction volume as of September 2.

Some of Cardano’s on-chain metrics improved in early September, possibly as a result of the Chang hard fork. The higher volumes were also a response to the launch of Snek.fun, the Cardano meme token platform.

The Cardano network took too long with a series of hard forks, but better-adapted networks easily drew in more funding. The Cardano platform still lags with stablecoin bridging, value locked, and projects at scale.

As of September 2024, the Cardano network has one significant DEX, Minswap, with $11.44M in liquidity pairs based on DappRadar data, but under 500 active daily users. Based on Defi Llama, Minswap carries over $49M in liquidity, still behind the DEX on other networks. Only $1.39M are locked on the bridge to Cardano. Even niche L2 protocols often easily draw in more than $100M from Ethereum. Cardano also lacks native versions of stablecoins USDT and USDC.

Games and NFT platforms see an extremely low user count. In total, Cardano locks in around $192M in total value for all its DeFi protocols.

Cardano itself boasts of being scalable and decentralized, though full decentralization without a central coordinator may only happen after the Stage 2 of the Chang hard fork.

Cardano turns to marketing to build up value

Cardano and ADA are assets that respond well to bull markets. The prominent position of ADA close to the top 10 of coins and tokens means the asset goes through regular rallies.

Searches for “Cardano” have not picked up, but ADA tokens show an uptick in search interest. ADA remains a regular token to rally during bullish months, due to its low baseline level. However, the asset is still far from reaching $5 as expected.

Cardano is also highly active in its marketing efforts. In the coming months, the project will present its features in a series of events throughout major European and Asian cities.

One of the big advantages of Cardano is its large treasury, which retains more than 1.5B ADA. The treasury may be used for additional marketing, as well as for supporting ecosystem projects.

Cardano supporters have warned against overspending on marketing, by selling ADA and depressing the price. Previously, projects like Polkadot used their sizeable treasury for influencers, but only ended up increasing selling pressure.

In the coming months, Charles Hoskinson will no longer be the major influence on Cardano, instead letting representatives impose their views in adding projects and developing the network.