Cardano (ADA) has remained in the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap despite a brief slowdown this week.

Over the past day alone, ADA gained over 7%, depicting its revival with the onset of the bull market. Furthermore, a crucial on-chain metric has reached heights last seen over two years ago, further validating the bullish thesis.

Catalysts Fueling ADA’s Run

IntoTheBlock’s latest on-chain data highlights an impressive uptick in network activity, with over 840,000 transactions recorded recently, generating total fees of 279,000 ADA. This surge in usage mirrors levels last seen in March 2022, demonstrating increased interest and adoption within the Cardano ecosystem.

An analyst citing ITB data said,

“Few months before this time, $ADA was mostly used as a speculative asset. However, $ADA recorded sustained growth in the number of holders from July 2022 till today. This suggests growing confidence in the Cardano Blockchain/ ecosystem.”

ADA has been one of the best-performing crypto assets this bull run, reclaiming the crucial $1 mark. During this week’s minor dip, large ADA investors were observed to have bought over 130 million tokens worth approximately $130 million.

This acquisition tightens the supply, potentially boosting the asset’s value if demand remains constant or grows. Additionally, these significant purchases might signal confidence to smaller investors, inspiring them to enter the market.

Zooming out, ADA whales have accumulated $10 million worth of tokens in the past month alone, thereby increasing their positions by a staggering 146%

Milestone for Cardano Ecosystem

On the ecosystem side, Cardano recently reached a critical milestone with the successful deployment of its first zero-knowledge (ZK) smart contract, Halo2, on the mainnet through the Plutus v3 ledger language. This move essentially allows zero-knowledge applications and integration with partner chains like Midnight.

On November 25, the Input-Output (IO) Research team demonstrated Halo2’s capabilities by verifying the Ad-hoc Threshold Multi-signatures scheme (ATMS) on the mainnet, confirming 50 out of 90 signatures. The transactions included a 0.16 ADA fee for locking funds and 2.03 ADA for unlocking them after proof verification.