u.today
The Cardano network has topped a total of 121 million transactions. It has now logged eight years of continuous uptime.
However, this rather impressive technical achievement might be overshadowed by a brewing governance crisis and severely lagging market performance.
The blockchain is pushing forward on future-proofing its technology. Recently, the network rolled out a new security initiative that is focused on quantum resistance.
An ecosystem under threat
As reported by U.Today, Cardano is facing severe internal friction following its transition to on-chain decentralized governance.
Founder Charles Hoskinson recently warned that the project's foundational research ecosystem is on the verge of being dismantled.
A controversial governance vote in which several Japanese Delegate Representatives (dReps) rejected a critical research funding proposal.
Hoskinson has warned that the network’s lab will be forced to shut down, and its scientists will leave without funding.
That said, there are some positive Cardano ecosystem developments as well. For instance, the Van Rossum Hard Fork, which will be rolled out this year, will enhance Plutus smart contracts. Cardano is also preparing for the introduction of Ouroboros Leios, a new scalability solution.
Falling behind Zcash
At the same time, $ADA is suffering severe market underperformance, which has resulted in it losing multiple positions on CoinMarketCap rankings.
Cardano's native token, $ADA, is currently trading at roughly $0.249. The "Ethereum killer" has collapsed by an eye-popping 91.9% from its dizzying all-time high achieved four years ago.
$ADA, which used to be a staple in the top 10, currently sits as the 14th largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $9.22 billion.
$ADA has plunged the highly controversial privacy coin Zcash (ZEC), which recently secured the 13th spot with a market cap exceeding $10.5 billion following an extremely impressive multi-month rally.