Cardano (ADA) has distinguished itself within the decentralized finance (DeFi) arena, as its total value locked (TVL)
climbed by 28.7% during Q3 2025
to reach a peak of $423.5 million, the highest in three years. This renewed momentum has
lifted ADA’s market cap to $29.5 billion
, marking a 42.5% rise, fueled by strong performance from major protocols such as Liqwid and Minswap.
Liqwid’s TVL surged 50.8%
to $101.6 million, while
Minswap accounted for 74.7% of DEX trading volume
across the platform.
The
upward trend
has been further supported by significant whale involvement, as
large investors accumulated 348 million ADA tokens
— valued at over $204 million — between November 7 and 10. This accumulation helped boost ADA’s price by 21% from its monthly low of $0.49,
fueling optimism among market analysts
who point to a possible “Power of Three” bullish setup that could push the price to $0.73.
Despite this rally, overall network usage has not kept pace, as
daily active addresses have declined
, revealing a gap between institutional confidence and retail engagement.
Cardano’s governance has also progressed, with
its first entirely community-elected Constitutional Committee formed
in September 2025. This represents a major milestone in decentralizing governance,
removing key institutional players such as Input Output Global (IOG)
from decision-making authority. This shift is in line with Cardano’s Voltaire roadmap phase, which
emphasizes empowering ADA holders
and strengthening the ecosystem’s durability.
Nonetheless, some obstacles remain. Although TVL and market capitalization are strong,
transaction activity has started to contract
, with daily app transactions dropping by 14.7%. This slowdown raises concerns about whether growth can be maintained, especially as
the network’s treasury, despite rising 24.7%
to $1.3 billion, has seen a 10.9% decrease in
ADA
terms.
Experts warn that without ongoing adoption
of native DeFi protocols, the ecosystem may experience instability, particularly if the broader market weakens.
The
Cardano
Foundation has
presented an ambitious roadmap
to tackle these issues, including providing liquidity to stablecoin initiatives and advancing real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. Furthermore,
upgrades such as Halo2-Plutus
— which bring on-chain zero-knowledge proof capabilities — are designed to boost privacy and scalability for developers. These efforts highlight Cardano’s determination to strengthen its DeFi presence, though their effectiveness will depend on user engagement and overall economic conditions.