Cardano’s DeFi Ecosystem Hits 400 Million $ADA in TVL as Minswap Leads the Way

DeFi

The total value locked on Cardano’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem has reached a new milestone after surpassing the 400 million $ADA milestone for a brief period, to now stand at around 399 million ADA.

According to data from DeFi tracking and analytics service DeFiLlama, the total value locked on Cardano, represented in U.S. dollars, is now close to the $150 million. Data shows that decentralized exchange Minswap is the leading protocol by total value locked with $55.2 million locked on it, and it’s followed by collateralized debt protocol Indigo, with $28.5 million locked on it.

Decentralized exchange WingRiders and the Djed stablecoin project follow suit, with $15.6 million and $13.6 million in total value locked, respectively. Total value locked (TVL), it’s worth noting, is a metric that measures the amount of cryptocurrency deposited in DeFi protocols.

TVL is calculated by adding up the value of all the assets that are locked in different DeFi protocols. It can be expressed in terms of the native cryptocurrency of the blockchain network (such as ETH for Ethereum) or in terms of USD. TVL is often used as an indicator of the popularity and activity of the DeFi ecosystem.

The TVL on Cardano has been steadily growing so far this year. As CryptoGlobe reported in February, at the time the value locked on Cardano’s DeFi protocols had doubled from the beginning of the year, to reach the $100 million mark.

Notably, Cardano was surpassed as the leading cryptocurrency network by development activity by Polkadot earlier this year, and has stayed closely behind after it and its public pre-production environment Kusama.

As CryptoGlobe reported, Polkadot saw its active user numbers surge 300% amid last year’s cryptocurrency market rout. Polkadot’s main blockchain, called the relay chain, does not support smart contracts, but other blockchains connected to it can support them.

As a result, Polkadot is expected to become a growing ecosystem of cryptocurrencies that competes with other smart contract networks such as Ethereum, the BNB Chain, and more. It was launched in 2020 and brings a number of technical features that help it reach its goal.

DOT is the native cryptocurrency of the Polkadot network and serves as its governance token. DOT holders can stake their tokens to vote on network upgrades and help decide the future of Polkadot by actively participating in its governance, according to CryptoCompare.