Cardano Transaction Fees Jump 254% QoQ as ADA Price and Activity Soar

Cardano (ADA) saw its price surge by 126% in Q4 2024, while its market capitalization grew to $30.3 billion. This price jump triggered ADA’s circulating market cap rank from 11th to 9th.

The increases in both price and market cap aligned with the US election in November and the broader rally of cryptocurrencies.

As such, Messari’s latest report also highlights that transaction fees in USD rose 254% QoQ to $1.8 million, representing a 95% year-over-year (YoY) increase, which was driven by higher token prices and transaction activity.

State of Cardano: DeFi, DEX Figures Surge

The number of average daily transactions on Cardano rose by 65% quarter-over-quarter to 71,500. This was recorded alongside a 58% quarter-over-quarter growth in average daily active addresses, which reached 42,900. Meanwhile, the average transaction fee in USD increased by 80% to $0.23, while the fee in ADA declined by 2% to 0.34.

Messari explained that the network efficiently managed the higher transaction load without significant changes in native costs.

Cardano’s average daily Dapp transactions fell 8% quarter-over-quarter to 14,300 in Q4. Minswap, Liqwid Finance, and jpg.store were the top-performing Dapps by transaction volume. Among them, Minswap played the most significant role in shaping overall Dapp activity, maintaining its position as the most active application on Cardano.

As the network’s leading DEX, Minswap had more than 200,000 traders and a total trading volume of $3.1 billion by the end of Q4. Meanwhile, the average daily DEX volume on Cardano surged 271% quarter-over-quarter to $8.9 million, with Minswap, WingRiders, and SundaeSwap leading the way. DEX trading volume also saw a 40% YoY increase.

In Q4, Cardano’s DeFi total value locked (TVL) in USD rose 13% quarter-over-quarter to $231.6 million, while the DeFi diversity score – representing the number of protocols contributing to 90% of the network’s TVL – also increased by 13% to 9%. Liqwid experienced a remarkable 141% surge in TVL during the same period as it reached $113.6 million and surpassed Minswap as the top protocol by DeFi TVL on Cardano.

Meanwhile, Minswap’s TVL climbed 69% quarter-over-quarter to $98.9 million. Smaller protocols like Splash Protocol and Aada saw even more dramatic growth, as their TVL increased 253% and 105% QoQ to $59.6 million and $30.2 million, respectively.

Stablecoin Growth on Cardano

During Q4, Cardano’s stablecoin market capitalization increased by 66% quarter-over-quarter. Among individual stablecoins, iUSD and DJED saw their market caps rise by 20% and 41% respectively during the same timeframe.

MyUSD recorded a more modest growth of 17%, while USDM’s market cap declined by 5%.