Earlier today, Ken Kodama, Founder and CEO of EMURGO, the official commercial arm and founding member of the Cardano blockchain, shared a few noteworthy updates from the crypto space last week.

He provided the following recap through a series of tweets:

  1. EMURGO announced the largest-ever Cardano hackathon organized by a founding entity, offering up to $2 million in prizes. Participants can choose from three tracks: DeFi Derivatives, Aggregators, and Zero-Knowledge (ZK). Last month, EMURGO hosted a business pitch/mini-hackathon in Thailand in collaboration with Bitkub, Thailand’s digital asset leader. Next month, EMURGO is set to launch the Cardano EMURGO BUILD 2023 Hackathon in partnership with DoraHacks, the world’s most active multi-chain Web3 developer community. The event will be online and open to all participants.
  2. EMURGO and IOG plan to co-host two CIP-1694 workshops in Tokyo (June) and Edinburgh (July) to discuss Cardano’s decentralized governance. Community members are encouraged to host local workshops for their communities, with financial support available.
  3. Emurgo Africa, EMURGO’s regional entity, and PwC have announced a June launch event for the first-ever research report on Africa’s Web3 landscape.

On April 20, Kodama shared a LinkedIn note outlining the latest trends and progress in the Cardano ecosystem. He noted substantial growth in multiple areas, including developer activity, decentralization, stablecoins, DeFi, and user empowerment.

According to Kodama, Cardano has ranked among the top three blockchain networks in terms of developer activity on GitHub for the past two years, as reported by blockchain intelligence firm Santiment AG. Cardano’s decentralization has also improved with the recent Dynamic P2P Nodes upgrade, enabling stake pools to operate more efficiently.

Furthermore, Kodama highlighted the growing number of Cardano native stablecoins being launched, which play a crucial role in providing liquidity and serving as a faster alternative to traditional payment processors. He also noted the rapid growth of Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem, with the total value locked (TVL) in the network reaching all-time highs.

Lastly, Kodama emphasized active investment initiatives aimed at empowering Cardano users, including Adaverse, a Cardano accelerator focused on Africa, and NODO, a pan-African news and discovery platform. Both initiatives aim to provide funding, mentorship, and resources for the growth of Web3 businesses in Africa. CardanoSpot serves as a social platform for the Cardano community to connect and access information.

In March, EMURGO established a strategic partnership with Bitkub Exchange, Thailand’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and Bitkub Academy, the country’s leading digital asset education hub, to boost Cardano’s presence and adoption in the region. The collaboration aims to foster community-building and educational initiatives. Bitkub Exchange, which holds a legal license from Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission, has become one of the nation’s first unicorn startups, while Bitkub Academy is dedicated to offering equal access to cryptocurrency knowledge through various educational initiatives.

Together, they plan to promote Cardano’s blockchain ecosystem and Web3 in Thailand by organizing Web3 business competitions for talented youth and university students, providing career opportunities in Web3, and exploring potential use cases for Cardano ecosystem projects, such as stablecoins. EMURGO CEO Ken Kodama expressed his optimism about the partnership, stating that it would “open further opportunities, drive education and development, and further cement the position of the Cardano ecosystem in Thailand with Bitkub as the local partner.”

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