Cardano daily transaction volume surges but ADA prices slump

The Cardano blockchain has experienced an explosion in on-chain activity and now trails only Bitcoin in current 24-hour transaction volume, surpassing Ethereum in the process according to Messari.

Cardano (ADA) currently has $17.04 billion in 24-hour transaction volume, according to data from on-chain analytics firm Messari. With Bitcoin (BTC) at $18.85 billion and Ethereum (ETH) at $5.25 billion according to Messari, Cardano is in second place in that category and is closing in on the top position for this metric.

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Overall, this month has seen tremendous activity on Cardano. On Feb. 14, 24-hour transaction volume topped $35 billion and on Feb. 19 it reached $31 billion. However, it is still far from the $138 billion all-time high in the volume set on Sept. 3 last year.

Transaction volume on Cardano has spiked in recent weeks in large part due to the launch of the SundaeSwap decentralized exchange (DEX). The hype around this launch caused days of congestion on the blockchain from the huge influx of transactions. 

Regardless of the SundaeSwap effect on the network, the total number of transactions on Cardano has increased 480% from 5.5 million on March 30 last year to nearly 32 million on February 20, according to Google’s Cardano Blockchain Insights.

Conditions were ripe for Cardano’s move up the ranks as both Bitcoin and Ethereum have seen declining network activity lately. Bitcoin 24-hour volume is down 84% from the 3-month peak of $116 billion on November 25. Ethereum volume has been declining since December 4 when volume reached a 3-month peak of $21.29 billion. It was down 82% to a 3-month low of $3.99 billion on Feb. 19.

Despite trailing in transaction volumes, Messari shows Ethereum still dominates Cardano in several other key network usage metrics. Ethereum boasts 76 million addresses to Cardano’s 3.4 million addresses for example.

Related: Blockchain-based internet company 3air abandons Cardano for SKALE network

Cardano was listed by Morgan Stanley’s wealth management global investment office as one of the four ‘Ethereum killer’ blockchains that could usurp smart contract superiority from Ethereum due to their lower costs and faster speeds. The others in the report included Solana, Polkadot, and Tezos.

The positive on-chain metrics have not helped ADA prices which have slumped 13% over the past 24 hours according to CoinGecko. ADA is currently trading at $0.833, down 73% from its $3.09 all-time high on Sep. 2, 2021.