Cardano DeFi ecosystem has an excellent quarter, here’s why

The first three months of the year also turned out to be excellent for Cardano (ADA). The ADA price, just like bitcoin (BTC) and many altcoins, managed to make a nice increase. ADA managed to close the first quarter in the green with 54%, amid a true revival in the crypto market. Price aside, Cardano’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem also had an excellent quarter.

Cardano TVL is rising very fast

On Tuesday, crypto market research platform Messari shared its so-called “State of Cardano Q1 2023report in which it took a closer look at Cardano’s first-quarter performance.

In addition to the significant increase in market capitalization, which rose from $8.6 billion to $13.2 billion, the network has also made significant strides in the DeFi sector. The total value locked (TVL) rose by no less than 172% from $50.8 million to $138.3 million in the first three months of the year.

The TVL is the total value of US dollars that users have tied up in DeFi applications on the relevant blockchain. Messari credits the recent adoption of new stablecoins on Cardano’s network as a catalyst for the aforementioned growth in TVL.

According to the report, the shift from established decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to emerging DeFI applications are among others attributed to Djed, who ends the quarter with $13.1 million worth of TVL. In addition, Liqwid, a lending protocol, and Indigo, an issuer of synthetic assets and stablecoins, are also major contributors to this shift with $8.4 million and $24.1 million respectively in TVL at the end of March.

However, Minswap still remains the leading DEX on the network. Despite TVL increasing by $31.7 million, Minswap’s dominance declined for the second straight quarter in Q1. Other popular Dex’s, SundaeSwap, WingRiders and MuesliSwap also declined in dominance in Q1.

Stablecoin volume on Cardano

The volume of stablecoins managed to grow even faster than the TVL, as it skyrocketed by 261%. The volume increased from $2.8 million to a total of $10 million. This growth was, of course, catalyzed by new stablecoins becoming available on the network. In January, for example, the Cardano news reported that Djed was successfully launched after a year of development.