Cardano has shown great growth and development in early 2024. A recent weekly report from Input Output Global (IOG) revealed that the platform now hosts 1,319 projects, with an increase in native tokens and Plutus scripts. Major updates include the release of Marlowe 0.3.0 for financial accessibility, the Hydra scaling solution's new version, and improvements in the Cardano node and Lace wallet. Additionally, Cardano leads in GitHub activity, outpacing rivals like Polkadot in development engagement. However, the network still faces a noticeable decline in whale activity.
Cardano's Latest Strides
Many people in the cryptocurrency space are wondering if Cardano is dead , but this does not seem to be the case at all. In a recent weekly report by Input Output Global (IOG), the organization behind Cardano (ADA), some big updates and progress were pointed out. Cardano has seen the launch of 157 projects, with a total of 1,319 projects now being built on its platform.
The network's expansion is further evidenced by its impressive statistics: there are now over 9.45 million native tokens, governed by 93,021 token policies. The use of Plutus scripts, a key feature for smart contracts on Cardano, also shows healthy growth - with 6,332 Plutus v1 scripts and 17,531 Plutus v2 scripts in use. Meanwhile, the total transactions on the Cardano network have reached 83.4 million.
The beginning of 2024 has also seen several new releases and upgrades in the Cardano ecosystem. The Marlowe team, focusing on making finance more accessible, announced the release of Marlowe 0.3.0. This update includes numerous milestones, enhancing the platform's capabilities.
Additionally, the first Hydra release of the year, version 0.15.0, has been successfully launched. Hydra is a layer-2 scaling solution for Cardano, designed to improve transaction throughput and latency. Another significant update is the release of Cardano node v.8.7.3, which addresses a minor issue with the Ouroboros network, Cardano's consensus protocol. The Lace wallet, a key tool for users interacting with the Cardano network, has also seen an upgrade to version 1.8.
The ledger team at IOG has been actively introducing new features. Recent weeks have seen the introduction of new ledger events, an increase in the URL length limit for transactions, and enhancements in consensus queries and JSON instances. The Mithril team, another crucial part of the Cardano ecosystem, has finalized the client's implementation in Explorer. This allows for direct certificate verification from the browser, enhancing security and trust in the network. They have also made strides in upgrading the devnet to support the Conway era and enabling the Mithril era marker reader on the Cardano chain during end-to-end testing.
Project Catalyst, Cardano’s community-driven innovation platform, is nearing the end of its community review moderation period. This phase has seen great engagement, with more than 70,000 moderations submitted by approximately 250 active level 2 moderators.
In a broader context, IOG is actively engaging with advancements in quantum technology and its potential applications in finance. In the next few weeks, IOG will support a collaborative workshop with the School of Informatics Edinburgh as well. This event will feature IOG Chief Scientist Aggelos Kiayias, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake, and other leading industrial and academic specialists. The workshop aims to explore the intersection of quantum-enhanced protocols and financial systems. It is thus very clear from IOG’s report that Cardano is certainly not dead.
Cardano Outperforms Rivals in Monthly GitHub Activity
Cardano also recently outperformed many of its major competitors in terms of monthly development activities, according to data from GitHub. Additionally, according to the crypto analytics platform Santiment, Cardano maintained a marginal lead over its peers in the last month.
In terms of total GitHub data, Cardano recorded 332.9 commits over the past 30 days, which was slightly more than Polkadot, which logged 329.57 commits. It is worth noting that Cardano consistently held the top position in developer engagement, a trend that has not wavered despite the rise of many alternative protocols, including both layer-1 and layer-2 solutions.
This sustained level of development activity positions Cardano as a very strong contender in the race to be a major Ethereum alternative. This is especially impressive considering that other leading chains, like Ethereum, have shown relatively lower GitHub commit activity. Kusama, known as Polkadot’s canary network, also showed good activity with a total of 329.57 commits, equal to Polkadot's.
Cardano's Whale Activity Plummets
On the other hand, Cardano's blockchain recently experienced a big decline in the volume of large transactions. This dramatic reduction in activity basically led to a near standstill in the network's activity.
Traditionally, large transactions on the blockchain are seen as indicators of whale behavior. However, the recent drop in these transactions on the Cardano network has been abrupt and considerable, leaving many in the crypto community puzzled. The reasons behind this decline are not clear just yet, but there is speculation ranging from accumulation phases to strategic redistribution of assets by these large holders.
This decline in whale activity on Cardano's blockchain isn't a sudden phenomenon but part of a longer-term trend. Over time, there has been a gradual decrease in these large-scale transactions. This could point to a variety of strategies employed by whales, like quietly accumulating more assets or strategically redistributing their holdings. Despite these possibilities, the lack of clear information makes it difficult to pinpoint the exact motives behind these movements and their potential impact on the Cardano ecosystem and its investors.
