Cardano, along with its native token ADA, experienced a significant decline in the second quarter of 2024. The report by Messari highlighted various key performance indicators that pointed towards a downturn in the cryptocurrency market. ADA’s price dropped by 39.7% to $0.39, while its market capitalization fell by 39.4% to $14 billion. This decline was mainly attributed to an increase in circulating supply, leading to a drop in market cap figures. As a result, ADA’s market cap ranking slipped from 9th to 10th place. Transaction fees on the Cardano network also saw a decrease, with revenue in USD falling by 44.3% and revenue measured in ADA dropping by 28.0%.
The report highlighted a decline in various transaction metrics for Cardano in Q2. The platform’s average daily transactions decreased by 27.5%, with the number of daily active addresses falling by 33.2%. Additionally, the average transaction fee in USD dropped by 23.1%, while the fee in ADA only saw a marginal decline. Despite these setbacks, the ratio of transactions to active addresses increased, indicating a rise in ‘power users’ engaging more frequently with the platform.
In terms of staking metrics, total ADA staked and the staking rate saw a slight increase. However, the total value of staked ADA in USD decreased significantly by 39.6%, primarily due to the falling price of ADA. Decentralized application (DApp) activity on Cardano also saw declines, with average daily DApp transactions falling by 35.7% and average daily decentralized exchange (DEX) volume in USD decreasing by 42.5%.
Despite the challenges faced by Cardano in Q2, the report highlighted ongoing developments within the platform’s ecosystem. The emergence of new stablecoins like USDM and MyUSD saw their market caps rise dramatically, indicating a shift in the landscape. Additionally, upcoming upgrades such as the Chang Hard Fork promise to increase Cardano’s governance capabilities, moving the network closer to achieving its long-term goals of self-sustainability and participatory decision-making.
Cardano’s performance in Q2 reflected the broader downtrend in the cryptocurrency market. Despite facing challenges in various key performance indicators, the platform is actively working on developments to improve its ecosystem and governance capabilities. It will be interesting to see how Cardano adapts and evolves in the coming quarters to overcome the setbacks experienced in Q2.