According to DefiLlama, Cardano's total value locked (TVL) has increased by 30% since the beginning of the year. From less than $50 million at the start of 2023, it had risen to $64.7 million by the end of the first 10 days of January.
Recall that TVL is one of the key indicators of a blockchain, showing how much is currently invested in it. The higher the amount of value locked, the more the project is trusted, and the lower the risks of a dramatic collapse in staking or farming.
So far, Cardano has three projects leading the way, with a total value locked in at more than $10 million. The unconditional leader among them is decentralized project Minswap, with a TVL of $26.55 million and a corresponding domination of 41.05%.
It is not just ADA price
One could attribute the rise in TVL on Cardano to the skyrocketing price of the blockchain's native token, ADA, by 28.1% since the start of January. But that is only part of the puzzle.
So, while a significant increase in the price of Cardano token has benefited the key metric, according to the same source, total value locked in ADA has increased by more than five million tokens. This means that, in addition to the growth in value already locked in, new tokens have also flowed into the protocols on Cardano in quite significant volumes.