The Cardano ($ADA) network has seen its transaction volume explode to $12.7 billion over the last 24-hour period, doubling Ethereum’s $6.3 billion over the same period. The network’s transaction volume has been growing with the increased adoption of its decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
According to data from on-chain analytics firm Messari, Cardano’s transaction volume exploding past that of Ethereum means it’s now in second place for the metric, behind Bitcoin’s $39.3 billion transaction volume. Behind Cardano is Ethereum, Litecoin, XRP, and Bitcoin SV.
As CryptoGlobe reported earlier this month, activity on the Cardano network has been surging over time. The number of daily new addresses being created on the cryptocurrency’s network jumped 167% on February 18, a matric that on-chain analyst Ali Martinez said generally “precedes a spike in price volatility for ADA.”
Data shows that the price of ADA has indeed seen its volatility surge, along with the rest of the cryptocurrency market. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed an order recognizing two separatist regions in easter Ukraine, and ordered its troops to enter these regions for “peacekeeping,” according to the BBC.
These developments escalated tensions between Russia and NATO, furthering an ongoing sell-off in risk assets. Data shows that year-to-date the S&P 500 is down over 9%, while the Nasdaq lost nearly 15% of its value.
Cardano’s transaction volume is likely being led by decentralized exchange SundaeSwap, which dominates close to 98% of the total value locked on its decentralized ecosystem. SundaeSwap is “a native, scalable decentralized exchange and automated liquidity provision protocol,” that is backed by cFund, Alameda Research, and Double Peak Group.
Data shows that in January large ADA token holders more than doubled their holdings in the cryptocurrency, taking advantage of a price drop of more than 30%. Data suggests Cardano addresses holdings between 10,000 and 1 million ADA have increased their holdings by 113%, accumulating $53.6 million.
Cardano developer Input Output has proposed increasing the network’s block size by 11% from 72 KB to 80 KB after network load surged above 90% with the launch of SundaeSwap.
According to CryptoCompare’s latest Asset Report, the number of Cardano hodlers has grown 10.9% in January to hit 309,000, while the number of cruisers rose 5.85% to hit 3.19 million. The number of addresses holding ADA hit a new high last month of 4.53 million.
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