Cardano’s blockchain load hits a new all-time high, here’s what it means

• The Cardano network usage has reached a new peak amid a high number of smart contracts deployments taking place.
• The Cardano blockchain team has initiated some major scalability developments in recent times.

---

Ethereum-competitor Cardano has witnessed significant developments taking place over the last few months. The introduction of smart contracts capability over the last few years has resulted in increased activity on the network.

Last Saturday, January 22, the average blockchain load on the Cardano network reached a staggering 94.94 percent. This has been the highest figure recorded on the network since January 16. The term “blockchain load” usually refers to the number of blocks used on the Cardano network.

currently, the size of a full Cardano block is at 73kb. A score of 100 percent shows that the blocks are filled while a score of 0 percent shows that the blocks are empty. The surge in Cardano’s blockchain load this month happens after the Cardano team announced raising the block size by 12.5 percent. This move was to cater to the projected increase in the traffic on Cardano.

Last week, Cardano’s blockchain activity also surpassed that of Ethereum for a brief period. Also, the launch of the much-awaited SundaeSwap DEX boosted the network activity. A number of DeFi protocols are already gearing up for a launch later this year.

Cardano focuses on scalability

The arrival of smart contracts capability on the Cardano blockchain gives new wings to the platform. Developers have been using these smart contracts capabilities to install decentralized apps (DApps). This has indirectly resulted in an increase in the amount of data stored on the Cardano blockchain thereby further contributing to a surge in the block load.

The increased blockchain capacity has further boosted the transaction capacity per block. This has ultimately translated into more transactions per second, higher data throughput, and greater capacity for consumers.

By hitting these new scalability milestones, Cardano has recorded higher volumes and 500x cheaper fees than Ethereum taking into consideration the adjusted volumes. Over the last year, the number of Cardano wallets has also increased dramatically. As of December 24, 2021, the total wallets on the Cardano blockchain stood at 190,000, a staggering 1200 percent up from the 2020 Christmas period.

ADA price correction

Although the Cardano blockchain has registered some key developments over the last four months, it hasn’t been reflected in the price of its native cryptocurrency ADA. After hitting an all-time high of $3.0 in early September, the ADA price has corrected 66% so far.

ADA has been constantly moving sideways and as of today, it has further slipped under $1.0 amid the brutal crypto market correction. As of press time, Cardano (ADA) is trading 12 percent down at a price of $0.98 with a market cap of $33 billion.

Related: Crypto investors need to pay close attention to Cardano in 2022, here’s why