Cardano Metrics Strong in Q1 2023, Reports Messari

Cardano made considerable progress in the first quarter by moving up from the ninth spot to the seventh largest network by market cap.  

The market valuation of Cardano’s ADA increased by 54% quarter over quarter, according to Messari’s State of Cardano Q1 2023 report, suggesting that 2023 could be a better year for the network.

Cardano Records Growth in Q1

Messari noted that ADA’s market cap rose from $8.6 billion to $13.2 billion in the first quarter of 2023.

Messari highlighted Cardano’s general market rise elevated ADA to the seventh largest crypto by market cap in Q1 after finishing the previous quarter as the ninth largest. The report notes, “With a quarterly inflation rate of 0.1%, the rate of increase in circulating market cap matched that of ADA’s price almost exactly.”

The proof-of-stake (PoS) Layer-1, which integrated smart contracts into its network following the Alonzo upgrade in 2021, has seen a notable increase in its TVL (total value locked).

Dollar value locked in the network rose 172% QoQ, according to Messari. According to the report, established protocols like MinSwap and more recent protocols like Liqwid Finance contributed to the TVL growth from $50.8 million to $138.3 million.

TVL Rises With Increased Transactions

Automated market maker Minswap remains Cardano’s top decentralized exchange (DEX). However, its dominance has fallen as overall DEX TVL increased by $31.7 million.

Messari reported, “TVL nearly tripled due to increased dApp transactions and adoption of new stablecoins.”

However, the growth didn’t replicate in some aspects against the last quarter. New addresses and average daily transactions declined by 71.5% and 10.6%, respectively. The average transaction fee increased by $0.01, from $0.11 to $0.12, Messari highlighted. Despite the increase, the average transaction fee is still lower than the $0.17 average recorded in Q3 2022, possibly due to consistency in user traffic.

The network launches also continue in the meantime. On April 14, Input Output Global (IOG) announced that Project One, now known as Lace, had gone live on the mainnet. The web3 wallet platform is a Chrome-only browser extension that combines digital assets, DApps, DeFi, and RealFi.

Cardano Flows Paint a Positive Picture

The altcoin is still attempting to get into the NFT market, which is still a large one. Cardano was the fifth largest network by NFT secondary sales volume in Q4 2022, at $40.5 million. But in Q1, its daily NFT transactions fell by 27% while daily unique purchasers saw a decline of 23%, according to the report.

Furthermore, Cardano’s treasury balance reportedly increased to 1.21 billion ADA in the quarter.

In the meantime, Cardano (ADA) investment products have garnered interest among other altcoins, according to the most recent CoinShares report. Cardano’s weekly flow notably surpassed $0.1 million.

Cardano Foundation also released its first annual report on April 18. 

The foundation stated that Grant Thornton would undertake the year-end audit, which will be completed in May 2023.