So far this year, the total value locked (TVL) on Cardano’s decentralized finance (DeFi) space has more than quadrupled, with over $100 million in $ADA locked on Defi protocols on the network.
According to DefiLlama statistics, the total value locked on the Cardano network began in 2023 at roughly $49 million and has since risen to almost $104 million. The increase may be credited partly to Cardano’s price appreciation, as the cryptocurrency rose from approximately $0.25 at the start of the year to over $0.39 at the time of writing.
Although the cryptocurrency’s price rose significantly, it fell short of the cryptocurrency community’s price estimate of $0.495 for the first month of the year, as investors projected $ADA to nearly double in January.
Notably, Cardano’s total locked value in $ADA has increased dramatically, rising from 198.6 million to 27.5 million at the time of writing.
The number of locked $ADA on the network skyrocketed quickly after the debut of Djed ($DJED), a formally confirmed algorithmic stablecoin for Cardano backed by cryptocurrency. The stablecoin was created by IOG, the firm behind the creation of Cardano, and COTI Group issues it. The stablecoin was first announced in September 2021 and became life earlier this month.
As previously reported, the reserve ratio for $DJED topped 600% quickly after its debut, with investors transferring over 30 million $ADA to its base reserves to mint over 11.8 million DJED in less than a week.
The increasing total value locked comes as the number of Cardano smart contracts deployed has topped 5,000. Cardano hit the 3,000 bright contract threshold in August of last year, according to CryptoGlobe, after adding about 100 intelligent agreements in a month.
Minswap, a decentralized exchange, is the most extensive Defi protocol by total value locked on Cardano, with $34.3 million in total value locked. With $16.3 million and $15.9 million in TVL, respectively, it is followed by competitor DEX WingRiders and collateralized debt protocol Indigo.
