Cardano’s Q1 2023 Report: A Positive Outlook for the Year Ahead
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During the first quarter of 2023, Cardano demonstrated significant growth by moving up from the ninth position to the seventh largest network based on market capitalization.
According to the Q1 2023 report from Messari’s State of Cardano, the market valuation of Cardano’s ADA increased by 54% quarter over quarter, which indicates a promising year ahead for the network.
In the first quarter, the market cap of ADA rose from $8.6 billion to $13.2 billion, elevating it to the seventh largest cryptocurrency by market cap. The quarterly inflation rate of 0.1% matched the increase in the circulating market cap of ADA almost exactly.
The Layer-1 proof-of-stake (PoS) network integrated smart contracts after the Alonzo upgrade in 2021, resulting in a notable increase in its total value locked (TVL). According to Messari, the dollar value locked in the network rose 172% QoQ, owing to protocols like MinSwap and Liqwid Finance.
While Cardano’s automated market maker, Minswap, remained the top decentralized exchange (DEX), its dominance decreased as the overall DEX TVL increased by $31.7 million. Messari reported that TVL nearly tripled due to increased dApp transactions and the adoption of new stablecoins.
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However, some areas did not witness growth compared to the previous quarter. New addresses and average daily transactions declined by 71.5% and 10.6%, respectively, and the average transaction fee increased by $0.01, from $0.11 to $0.12.
The network continued launching, with Input Output Global (IOG) announcing that Lace, previously known as Project One, had gone live on the mainnet on April 14. Cardano’s treasury balance increased to 1.21 billion ADA in the quarter.
Cardano’s investment products, including ADA, gained interest among other altcoins, according to the latest CoinShares report.
Cardano Foundation released its first annual report on April 18, stating that Grant Thornton would undertake the year-end audit, which would be completed in May 2023.
Despite a decline in daily NFT transactions and daily unique purchasers by 27% and 23%, respectively, Cardano is still striving to enter the large NFT market. In Q4 2022, it was the fifth largest network by NFT secondary sales volume at $40.5 million.
At the time of writing ADA is trading at $0.416 after a 0.7% price drop in the past 24 hours.