Total Value of Cardano DeFi Ecosystem Nears $450M Amid Layer 1 Push; ADA Rockets 17%

Value locked on Cardano’s ecosystem grew rapidly in the past few weeks as a recent boost in Ethereum alternatives, such as Solana and Avalanche, is likely pushing crypto investors and users toward other blockchains in search of returns and capital allocation.

The total value locked (TVL) of all Cardano-based projects jumped to over $440 million late earlier this week, crossing a previous peak of $330 million set in April. Most growth seemingly occurred over the past week, with lending protocol Indigo and on-chain exchange Minswap seeing their TVL surge by over 50% to nearly $100 million each.

Djed [DJED] stablecoin, a token pegged to the U.S. dollar, saw a supply increase of over 45% in the past week – indicative of capital inflows toward the token as investors looked to capitalize on yields.

Meanwhile, value locked on relatively smaller protocols LendFi and Spectrum Finance, has surged by 90%, suggesting users were starting to take riskier bets.

Such on-chain growth has boosted the price of Cardano’s ADA token, which is used to pay for network activity. The tokens surged some 17% in the past 24 hours, helping extend monthly gains to nearly 80%, data shows, and a 100% growth in leveraged futures bets on further ADA price volatility in the same period.

As such, Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem has surged alongside those of other blockchains.

The total amount of capital locked or staked across all decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols reached $50 billion at the start of December for the first time in six months, led by Solana ecosystem protocols as optimism around the blockchain has picked up in recent weeks.