Morgan Stanley\u2019s latest research on Ethereum <\/strong>(ETH-USD<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/span>), outlining the pros and cons<\/a> for investors, includes one notable \u201ccon\u201d: Competition. Potential \u201cEthereum killers\u201d name-checked in the report were Binance <\/strong>(BNB-USD<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/span>), Solana<\/strong> (SOL-USD<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/span>), and Cardano<\/strong> (ADA-USD<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\n Source: Stanslavs \/ Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And the last one has hit a major milestone: Cardano just pulled WAY<\/em> ahead in the on-chain-activity rankings! Let\u2019s look at how the #7 crypto pulled this off \u2013 and what this means for Cardano as an investment.<\/p>\n In the below table from crypto data company Messari, we see exactly how dominant Cardano is becoming, in terms of daily transactions on its blockchain. (Not to be confused with trading volume of the cryptos themselves.)<\/p>\n Cardano ranks second only to Bitcoin <\/strong>(BTC-USD<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/span>) by total volume, with $16.8 billion transacted in the past 24 hours. That\u2019s nearly three times<\/em> what was transacted on the Ethereum network!<\/p>\n Source: Messari.io<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In fact, Cardano just saw more transaction volume than the next eight blockchains combined.<\/p>\n Plus, when you look at \u201cadjusted transaction volume,\u201d it actually ranks highest there\u2026pulling ahead of the Bitcoin network by roughly 2:1! Adjusted transaction volume is how crypto data services like Messari account<\/a> for \u201cnon-economic\u201d transactions on the blockchain. In other words, when crypto exchanges move coins around, that\u2019s excluded, and so is mixer activity. (Mixers are third-party tools that allow you to transact bitcoin, in particular, while preserving anonymity<\/a>.)<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth noting that ETH still has \u201cthe leading share of users, deposits and developers,\u201d as Morgan Stanley writes, but \u201cEthereum may lose smart contract platform market share to faster or cheaper alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s exactly what the top competitors<\/a> like Cardano provide. It\u2019s crucial to attracting the most popular blockchain apps like decentralized exchanges (DEXs), which allow crypto traders to store their coins themselves and trade them peer-to-peer<\/a> (P2P), rather than trusting them to a \u201chot wallet\u201d on an exchange like Coinbase<\/strong> (NASDAQ:COIN<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/span>) or FTX <\/strong>(FTT-USD<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\n And indeed, this surge in Cardano transactions is credited to the launch of a new DEX there: SundaeSwap<\/strong> (SUNDAE-USD<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/span>). One month in, SundaeSwap is responsible for 98%<\/a> of the total value locked (TVL) on the Cardano network.<\/p>\n In these early, Wild West days of crypto, those high-profile launches that suddenly attract tons of new traffic can cause major congestion on the blockchain \u2013 and SundaeSwap was no exception. Luckily, Cardano is configured so its developers can meet demand by increasing block sizes, which it did here.<\/a><\/p>\n Despite a bumpy launch, SundaeSwap came with a major incentive to buy Cardano\u2019s ADA crypto. Those who staked ADA in SundaeSwap\u2019s pools would get SUNDAE tokens in return \u2013 100 million of them, or 5% of the total supply. Similarly, this week\u2019s surge in traffic to the Cardano network coincides with another token drop of 20 million SUNDAE.<\/a><\/p>\n Cardano is uniquely attractive to stakers in general because its Bitcoin-like ethos, valuing decentralization and security, means it\u2019s programmed as a \u201cliquid democracy,\u201d so there\u2019s no waiting period to stake ADA (like on other blockchains). For more on these meticulous design details, Kraken Intelligence has a great report here<\/a>. If you flip through that, you\u2019ll soon see why Luke Lango of our Ultimate Crypto<\/em><\/strong><\/a> service calls it \u201cThe Most Technologically Superior Crypto in the World.\u201d<\/p>\n Most importantly, these launches on Cardano are a major catalyst for ADA upside \u2013 but not in the usual way.<\/p>\n On other blockchains, rising activity on their network will, theoretically, accrue directly to the value of their crypto. After all, you need that crypto to pay the transaction fees! On Cardano, though, you can pay with any native token<\/a>. Great for users (especially to attract new ones), not necessarily for the price of ADA.<\/p>\n But at the same time, we\u2019ve got projects launching on Cardano with the Initial Stake Pool Offering (ISO) like I described above with SundaeSwap. The below three-month chart of Cardano shows the impact. Within the broader downslide for crypto, Cardano saw a big spike leading up to the SundaeSwap launch on Jan. 20 \u2013 then a bump in February \u2013 as people prepared to stake ADA and get SUNDAE token rewards. For context, ADA is trading near 52-week lows, but still up +1,930% since 2019.<\/p>\n Source: YCharts<\/p>\n<\/div>\n All this to say: ADA price is probably going to keep seeing a cycle of big spikes, with retreats in between. The good news is that, because Cardano has put in the work to become the premier blockchain infrastructure, developers are flocking there.<\/p>\n Even as \u201cpaper hands\u201d have been shaken out of the crypto markets, the biggest projects routinely have hundreds of developers working on them every day. According to the on-chain analysts at Santiment, Cardano is now second<\/a> only to Solana on its Developer Activity Contributors Count.<\/p>\n One big thing all these developers are working on is a splashy new Layer 2 for Cardano to boost transaction speeds. Cardano is already capable of 257 transactions per second (TPS), versus 15 TPS for Ethereum<\/a> and 3,878<\/em> TPS for Solana<\/a>! But with the launch of \u201cHydra<\/a>, Cardano\u2019s solution for ultimate Layer 2 scalability,\u201d it hopes to blow even Solana out of the water \u2013 with TPS more like 1 million!<\/p>\n That kind of project tends to attract a LOT <\/em>of attention\u2026and talent. To fund all this development, we should expect plenty of ISOs coming to Cardano \u2013 thus, future demand for ADA.<\/p>\n Bottom line: \u201cCardano is one of the highest-quality cryptos you can buy and hold onto for dear life \u2013 and the data continues to back that up,\u201d writes Luke for his Ultimate Crypto<\/em><\/strong><\/a> subscribers. In fact, Luke and his analyst team are picking up a bullish technical setup for ADA, and preparing to report on the event for subscribers later this week. Click here to learn more and get access to the Ultimate Crypto<\/em> portfolio.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Ashley Cassell On the date of publication, Ashley Cassell\u00a0did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.\u00a0The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com\u00a0<\/em>Publishing Guidelines<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Cardano](\"https:\/\/investorplace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ada-5-300x169.jpg\")
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<\/strong>Contributing Editor, The New Digital World<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n