Cardano smart contract transactions expanded by 30% in August

Cardano (ADA) aims to show its progress, especially after boasting the new features of its Chang hard fork. The network expanded its smart contract activity in August, trying to catch up with other L1 chains. 

Cardano (ADA) transactions to smart contracts expanded by 31% in August compared to the previous month. The network has been trying to catch up with other L1, adding games and apps during the Web3 boom. Now, Cardano aims to rebuild again, especially after the long-awaited Chang hard fork. 

The Cardano Foundation noted the network carried 31% more smart contract transactions compared to the previous month. Simple transactions were even more active, expanding by 49%. Cardano gained attention in the run-up to its Chang update, as most nodes upgraded in August, leading up to the actual fork event on September 1. 

Outside of network growth and activity, ADA managed to retain the $0.34 level, trading mostly sideways but without deep crashes. 

In early September, Cardano is also expanding the count of its Direct Representatives, or DReps. The representatives are in the process of registering directly on the platform, with a permanent record. DReps can register with a 500 ADA deposit, with close to 400 on the list as of September 9. 

The representatives will uphold the Cardano rules and will have the task of voting on a constitution and other problems such as treasury allocation. DRep are already starting personal campaigns to connect with builders and offer them representation and votes. 

Cardano lags in stablecoin adoption, user count

The Cardano network still lags in terms of daily active wallets. The chain achieved a one-month peak at 52K daily active addresses, less than 10% compared to more active chains like Ethereum, Solana and even Toncoin. 

The Cardano network still had a turnover of above $19B in value during the market peak in March, and $5.75B in transaction volume as of September 2. 

Some of Cardano’s on-chain metrics improved in early September, possibly as a result of the Chang hard fork. The higher volumes were also a response to the launch of Snek.fun, the Cardano meme token platform. 

The Cardano network took too long with a series of hard forks, but better-adapted networks easily drew in more funding. The Cardano platform still lags with stablecoin bridging, value locked, and projects at scale. 

As of September 2024, the Cardano network has one significant DEX, Minswap, with $11.44M in liquidity pairs based on DappRadar data, but under 500 active daily users. Based on Defi Llama, Minswap carries over $49M in liquidity, still behind the DEX on other networks. Only $1.39M are locked on the bridge to Cardano. Even niche L2 protocols often easily draw in more than $100M from Ethereum. Cardano also lacks native versions of stablecoins USDT and USDC, 

Games and NFT platforms see an extremely low user count. In total, Cardano locks in around $192M in total value for all its DeFi protocols. 

Cardano itself boasts of being scalable and decentralized, though full decentralization without a central coordinator may only happen after the Stage 2 of the Chang hard fork. 

Cardano turns to marketing to build up value

Cardano and ADA are assets that respond well to bull markets. The prominent position of ADA close to the top 10 of coins and tokens means the asset goes through regular rallies. 

Searches for “Cardano” have not picked up, but ADA tokens show an uptick in search interest. ADA remains a regular token to rally during bullish months, due to its low baseline level. However, the asset is still far from reaching $5 as expected. 

Cardano is also highly active in its marketing efforts. In the coming months, the project will present its features in a series of events throughout major European and Asian cities. 

One of the big advantages of Cardano is its large treasury, which retains more than 1.5B ADA . The treasury may be used for additional marketing, as well as for supporting ecosystem projects. 

Cardano supporters have warned against overspending on marketing, by selling ADA and depressing the price. Previously, projects like Polkadot used their sizeable treasury for influencers, but only ended up increasing selling pressure. 

In the coming months, Charles Hoskinson will no longer be the major influence on Cardano, instead letting representatives impose their views in adding projects and developing the network.