The year 2023 started well for ADA. Cardano Value Locked doubled, the price rebounded, and IOG Launched their stablecoin DJED.
In Short
- Cardano Value Locked (TVL) DeFi TVL surged sharply.
- Cardano’s stablecoin, DJED, launched recently.
- EVM-compatible Cardano sidechain is now operational on testnet
ADA whale transactions increased substantially this year, according to analytics firm Santiment. On its Twitter account, the analytics platform reported that this increase is generally associated with a price increase.
? #Cardano whale numbers have risen in 2023, and large transactions have notably broken out. The last time there were this many $100k+ $ADA transactions was in May, & its price jumped +36% from the beginning of that week until its local top in early June. https://t.co/GTuBl9DKWA pic.twitter.com/9GSnMqlomB
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) February 7, 2023
As Santiment reported, this increase in the number of transactions means that large cryptocurrency investors are confident in its future and are willing to invest large amounts of money in ADA.
“Other investors are likely to share that confidence, which will drive the price even higher. Overall, the increase in the number of whales and large transactions is a sign of this.” Santiment Analytics
Cardano: TVL in DeFi soars
In addition to whale transactions, Cardano’s total locked value (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) in 2023 doubled, meaning more users are “locking” their assets into protocols based on the Cardano network. According to data from the DeFi Llama platform, Cardano’s TVL jumped from around $49 million on January 1 to the current $108.2 million. That is an increase of more than 100%. The total amount blocked in the last 24 hours increased by 5.8%.
ADA price rebounds in 2023
ADA, Cardano’s native token, also records a peak in 2023. The price of the ninth largest digital currency, according to capitalization, jumped from $0.25 on January 1, 2023, to the current price of $0.38. Thus, an appreciation of more than 52% in this period. According to CoinPaprika data, ADA increased by 4% over the past week.
Cardano stablecoin: DJED
TVL rise and ADA price rise match with the launch of Djed, Cardano’s over-collateralized stablecoin. The stablecoin’s TVL soared to more than $10 million in the first 24 hours of its launch. Seventy-one million ADA tokens were loaded into the network last week, with Djed representing about 30 million of them, according to data from DeFillama. The DEX exchange Minswap is the leading DeFI protocol, with a TVL of $35.93 million.
Ethereum sidechain goes live on public testnet
Input Output (IOG), the development company behind Cardano, unveiled a new sidechain that allows linking Ethereum and Cardano ecosystems. The developers announced Tuesday on Twitter that a public testnet of the sidechain is now fully operational. Specifically, it is a proof-of-concept sidechain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) developed directly by the Input-Output team.
The development follows the launch of a new toolkit designed for building custom sidechains, unveiled by IOG developers. Initially available on a test network, the kit allows sidechain builders to benefit from Cardano’s security and decentralization from outside the main network.
?OUT NOW: Following the latest #sidechain toolkit announcement, the #EVM sidechain proof of concept public testnet is now available! #Cardano
— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) February 7, 2023
Note that sidechains are separate blockchains built on a blockchain but run independently. Although parallel, sidechains can have their consensus algorithm, meaning different rules apply. According to IOG’s announcements, the new test network EVM-compliant sidechain will be available for a short period and will be adjusted regularly during its pilot phase.
Users can test token transfers between test environments, connect their wallets and implement smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps). IOG encouraged developers and Stake Pool operators (SPOs) to participate and experiment on the platform.
Cardano and Ethereum ecosystems intertwine
As early as June 2022, the IOG team had already previewed the development of an EVM-compatible sidechain, the design of which would open the door for developers skilled in using the Solidity language to take advantage of the benefits of both networks – Cardano and Ethereum – in one place. The platform was at that time in the alpha phase.
As such, this environment would make it easier for developers to combine the best of both ecosystems and migrate native Ethereum products and applications to Cardano and vice versa if desired. However, this is not the first time the two ecosystems have come together in this way. In 2021, blockchain developer dcSpark introduced a sidechain project called Milkomeda, which allows EVM-compatible Smart Contracts to run from the Cardano mainnet.
Since then, Milkomeda, whose name is a play on words intended to allude to Cardano’s vision of interoperability, has been operating successfully, recording nearly 10 million transactions across the network and surpassing 100,000 cryptocurrency wallets, Finbold reports.