Decentralized exchanges on the Cardano ($ADA) network have seen their trading volumes surge to a new all-time high above the $30 million mark as the total value locked (TVL) on the network’s decentralized finance ecosystem rises to new highs.
According to data from DeFiLlama, the total trading volume on Cardano surpassed the $30 million mark on December 2, surpassing its previous all-time high of $23.3 million seen in early June 2023.
The record trading volume comes at a time in which the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem on Cardano has been surging, to the point the total value locked on it surpassed the $700 million mark for the first time.
The largest DeFi protocol on the network, lending protocol Liqwid, currently has $173.4 million locked on it, while the second-largest, decentralized exchange, Minswap, has $135.9 million worth of digital assets locked on its smart contracts.
These protocols are followed by collateralized debt protocol Indigo, with around $97.8 million in TVL, by lending platform Lenfi, and decentralized exchange Splash Protocol, with $76.4 million and $37.7 million in TVL, respectively.
Cardano’s volumes grow amid price rise
Both the trading volume and TVL metrics have been greatly benefitting from an increase in the price of Cardano’s native token, ADA, which surged around 266.5% over the last 30-day period from around $0.327 to now stand at $1.2.
Cardano’s price rose amid a wider cryptocurrency market rally that started after Republican candidate Donald Trump won the US presidential elections. Trump campaigned on a pro-crypto stance, leading many to believe the industry would benefit from additional regulatory clarity in the United States during his term.
The cryptocurrency’s massive price surge helped it secure its position as the eighth-largest digital asset by market capitalization, above the USDC stablecoin and behind the meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE), whose $61 billion market cap dwarfs ADA’s $42 billion.
