Cardano TVL hits $300 million – what’s next?

• Cardano’s TVL has increased exponentially over the last week
• Minswap is now the top DEX on the network
• ADA has broken above $1

Cardano (ADA) has been doing great of late, as is evident from its current market standings. Not only is the crypto experiencing a sharp increase in value, but also breaking records in terms of the Total Value Locked (TVL) in the Cardano network.

The latest findings from the network were released by DeFiLama, an analytics firm focused on cryptos. According to the firm, the TVL in the Cardano network has hit beyond the $300 million mark. Apparently, the sharp rise in the network’s TVL is due to the increased activity on Minswap, a community-based DEX that accounts for roughly 63% of Cardano’s TVL.

Exponential growth

Interestingly, the Minswap DEX made a debut on the network just two weeks ago (on March 9). The exchange quickly gained popularity and attracted a funding influx that saw the TVL surpass $200 million within the last week. This was further backed up on March 16 when the DEX started supporting yield farming. Now, with the DEX gaining even more ground, it appears that the previous top DEX on the network, SundaeSwap, has taken the backseat. SundaeSwap has its TVL at around $111 million.

SundaeSwap went live on the network back in January 2022 and quickly gained traction – even causing a spike in ADA’s price. However, things started going south for the DEX when users started complaining of network failure that caused failed transactions. The DEX developers blamed the issue on network congestion. A prior public animosity between SundaeSwap and CardStarter, a DEX accelerator, didn’t help things.

Another DEX named MuesliSwap, which joined the Cardano network back in November 2021, has failed to garner much support. The DEX has only managed to attract $1.68 million in TVL. This makes MinSwap the de facto leader of Decentralized Exchanges currently running on the network.

Cardano to get an upgrade soon

Granted, the Cardano network has had its fair share of troubles that often plague huge projects in the industry. Its growth hasn’t been very impressive, but the network’s founder and CEO, Charles Hoskinson, is keen to keep his team focused on developing the network to enable more applications to run on it. Charles is optimistic that after the upcoming network upgrade dubbed “Vasil,” the network will see a huge influx of new applications joining the network. If that happens, Cardano will have a much higher TVL than it has now. ADA’s price is already gaining, posting a 28% increase over the last 7 days as the coin breaks above the $1 mark.