Cardano (ADA), hit the 1 million milestone in the number of wallets staking early Sunday. After the much anticipated Alonzo hardfork that was released in September of this year, this was the first major milestone for the Proof of Stake blockchain. The growing popularity of ADA staking highlights Cardano’s growing influence in the Defi ecosystem. Founder Charles Hoskinson shared the milestone with his Twitter followers, along with a screenshot of the stake wallet statistics and the number of active pools.
“We made it.”
We did it! https://t.co/cpQCV8LQdo
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) December 5, 2021
Launched in September, Alonzo hardfork has added smart contract support, opening the way for many new possibilities in DeFi. Critics remained skeptical about Cardano’s impact on the DeFi market due to its late entry into this industry, but Hoskinson continued to argue that their focus was on building a reliable product rather than making a useless product. Despite this, Cardano has quickly made a name for itself in the DeFi ecosystem with the growing number of stakers and Dapp support.
Cardano is also gearing up to launch its first decentralized exchange, Sundae Swap, later today, and the team encourages developers and users to find potential bugs to fix and make it a solid product once the DEX launches on the mainnet.
“Don’t be surprised if the DEX contains some bugs. The Sundea Swap team encourages you to find some of these. Note that this is an early DApp software and yet Cardano is in the early stages of DeFi. Testnets are an important part of iterating and improving the experience.”
later today, @SundaeSwap will launch their DEX on the #Cardano TestNet launch. We’re expecting a huge amount of interest in this highly-anticipated event, and lots of activity. This is why we are collaborating. Because we’re looking to learn a lot, too.
1/8
— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) December 5, 2021
Can Cardano’s Rising DeFi Popularity Help ADA Price?
Cardano’s growing DeFi popularity and increased development activities on the blockchain had no effect on the price. Ahead of the Alonzo upgrade, the ADA price hit a new high of $3.10 and many expected the price to rise further after the successful upgrade, similar to Ethereum. However, the ADA price continued to decline even as other altcoins continued to hit all-time highs.
Cardano (ADA) is currently trading at $1.32, down over 4% in the last 24 hours. The altcoin lost the key support level of $1.60 during the recent market crash and is now trying to gain momentum amid the overall market recovery. Cardano supporters believe that the increased development on the platform has not yet been reflected in the prices and that once this happens, ADA will return to its bullish paths.
Disclaimer: What is written here is not investment advice. Cryptocurrency investments are high-risk investments. Every investment decision is under the individual’s own responsibility. Finally, Koinfinans and the author of this content cannot be held responsible for personal investment decisions.