Cardano Starts 2024 With A Bang: Network Growth And Activity See Impressive Outperformance

The Cardano (ADA) network looks to have had a remarkable run in 2023 and is starting the year 2024 on a high. This is evident in a recent weekly development report, which shows that the network has gained more adoption since the beginning of last year. 

Cardano’s Impressive Year-On-Year Performance 

Self-acclaimed ‘Cardano OG’ Chris O highlighted Cardano’s year-on-year performance in an X (formerly Twitter) post by comparing a recent report and one from this time last year. Based on the comparison, the analyst noted how the network has made significant progress over the past year. 

During this period, Cardano has added 44 more projects and 1.9 million tokens. Plutus V2 scripts on the network increased by 14,581, growing from 537 to 15,118. These scripts form part of what is used to validate actions on the network. Meanwhile, the number of transactions processed on the network increased by 24.1 million. 

Further commenting on these figures, Chris O noted how this growth and activity was impressive for a network that was once referred to as a “ghost chain.” Indeed, this performance helps to prove doubters wrong as crypto analysts like Lady of Crypto had suggested that the Cardano network had no real utility. 

Cardano’s founder, Charles Hoskinson, also previously commented on how the network was proving critics wrong. He noted that the network was growing organically like Bitcoin while affirming that it had the capabilities to handle such demand. In December 2023, Cardano achieved a significant milestone as all its blocks were reported to have been filled. 

The demand for the network is expected to continue rising, especially as the number of applications being built increases. The recent report shows that 1,318 projects are currently being built on Cardano. This represents a substantial increase from the 1,162 projects built on it this time last year. 

ADA price at $0.53 | Source: ADAUSD on Tradingview.com

A Stablecoin The Missing Piece

There is a need for a stablecoin to launch on Cardano, and Crypto analyst Guy Turner highlighted this as the most important milestone the network must achieve this year. He suggested that this could be one of the factors that determine whether or not ADA’s price hits a new all-time high this year. 

The introduction of a Cardano fiat-backed stablecoin is also important as it can help boost the growing DeFi landscape on the network. Turner noted how it was “very difficult” to grow decentralized applications (dApps) on the network without the help of a liquid fiat stablecoin. 

The wait for a fiat-backed stablecoin on the Cardano network might soon be over. Mehen, the USDM stablecoin issuer, recently revealed that there will be a limited mainnet target launch on March 16. 

Featured image from The Economic Times, chart from Tradingview.com