Cardano meteoric expansion into the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) has marked a significant milestone.
Recently, this project has managed to enter the coveted top 10 of the largest DeFi blockchains on the market, thanks to a dizzying increase in its Total Value Locked (TVL).
In the course of just one month, Cardano’s TVL has seen a phenomenal growth of 49%, reaching a new record of $380 million, according to official data from DefiLlama.
This rise has been driven by a number of DeFi protocols within the Cardano network that have shown outstanding performance in terms of adoption and growth of locked value.
The main beneficiaries of this boom are Indigo, Minswap and Liqwid, considered the three leading DeFi protocols on the Cardano network in terms of TVL.
Indigo, similar to MakerDAO on Ethereum, allows users to create synthetic assets by collateralizing funds.
Minswap offers an easy-to-use decentralized exchange (DEX) experience, plus yield farming opportunities.
On the other hand, Liqwid opens the doors to lending and borrowing opportunities in the DeFi ecosystem.
THE INCREASE IN TVL ON CARDANO IS INTERPRETED AS A CLEAR SIGN OF A CHANGE IN THE MARKET NARRATIVE
According to experts at Velvet Capital, this dizzying growth indicates a shift from pure hype and speculation towards the real implementation and usefulness of DeFi protocols on the Cardano network.
This suggests a growing interest in the functionality and effectiveness of decentralized applications rather than mere speculation.
However, despite this explosive growth, Cardano still represents only 0.8% of the DeFi market, while Ethereum remains dominant with over 50% of the TVL.
Additionally, the regulatory uncertainty posed by the SEC’s redefinition of the term “exchange” to include DeFi has generated some caution in the broader ecosystem, including the Cardano environment.
