Cardano’s decentralized Finance [DeFi] activities have recorded the biggest upsurge from Jan. 31. Data from DeFiLlama showed the asset’s Total Value Locked [TVL] has doubled in the year-to-date period amid the market downturn.
As seen in the chart below, the TVL of all smart contracts on Cardano rose from $48.95 million on Jan. 1 to $108.63 million at the time of writing.
In terms of popularity, the multi-pool decentralized exchange Minswap stands out as Cardano’s most popular decentralized application (DApp) with its TVL accounting for nearly $36 million.
Ranked second is WingRiders, an AMM DEX with $16.71 million in total trading volume.
Indigo, a decentralized synthetics trading platform, has $16.54 million in TVL, making it the third most popular DApp on Cardano.
In the past few months, Indigo and WingRiders have witnessed around a 25% boost in TVL.
The accelerated growth in TVL is attributed to the hype generated by the recent launch of the DJED stablecoin which too made it in the TVL charts, occupying the fourth position.
As reported earlier by TronWeekly Djed stablecoin was launched on the mainnet after over a year of preparation and development, following a successful security audit.
Although it is impossible to draw a clear link between the overcollateralized stablecoin and the TVL growth, a new milestone could contradict this.
Cardano’s DJED Steller Growth Might Have Acted As A Catalyst
The new COTI-backed token recorded 14,500% growth in its unique addresses just about a week after its launch.
In further positive news for the Cardano ecosystem, ADA has registered a notable spike in whale activity in 2023 as large-scale transactions to the tune of $100k have reached last year’s May levels.
Not only that, but since the beginning of 2023, 36 new whale addresses ranging between 1 million- 100 million worth of ADA have flocked into the Cardano ecosystem.
As noted by blockchain analytical platform Santiment, historical trends revealed that the last time there were this many $100k+ ADA transactions was in May, & its price jumped over 36% from the beginning of that week until its local top in early June.
An increase in whale numbers and large transactions is certainly a positive sign for the price of ADA. This is because demand for the coin rises as more whales enter the market, thus driving up its value.
Additionally, the large transactions indicate that whales are confident in the future of the coin and are willing to make big investments in it.