Cardano-Based DeFi Project Ardana Shuts Shop

Ardana, a major DeFi and stablecoin ecosystem built on Cardano, suddenly suspended development on November 24 due to “funding and project timeline uncertainty.” Ardana Labs will hold any remaining funding and keep the project open source for developers “until another competent dev team in the community comes forward to continue our work:”

The company states: 

“Development on Cardano has been difficult with a lot of funding going into tooling, infrastructure and security. This alongside the uncertainty around development completion has led to the best course of action being halting development of dUSD.”

A lot of people were caught off guard by the abruptness of the announcement. It seems, though, that problems have been brewing for a while. Ardana has been running on funds raised from an ongoing initial stake pool offering (ISPO) since July 4. 

Issuers of ISPOs have run into trouble due to the simultaneous decline in DANA and ADA prices and in Cardano staking yields as a result of the ongoing crypto winter. Ardana’s native DANA coins have lost about 99.85% of their value during the past year.

Ardana’s Recent Troubles 

Ardana said in January that “almost all of the product/smart contract development is finished.” However, they attributed the delay to “liquidation challenges” and “danger to customers’ assets” on the Cardano network, even though they could have launched their products within a matter of weeks.

The majority of users had a negative reaction and accused Ardana of being at fault.

Twitter user LucidCiC wrote: 

“Sounds like you’re blaming Cardano for your own lack of motivation and dedication. You decided to build here for a reason, And now you’re giving up. Others like Axo will come in and take all the glory.”

It is important to note that an early participant in the Cardano blockchain, Emurgo, has recently announced the release of the network’s first stablecoin, USDA.