As the crypto cycles move on, it becomes clearer which protocols have lasting value and endurance, and which are less likely to maintain a long-term presence.
During cycle lows, there is an opportunity to assess the landscape, and anyone looking to the medium and long term may have their minds on accumulation, in anticipation of future movements to the upside.
Something that was notable in 2021, when crypto markets were extremely bullish, was that as focus shifted away from Bitcoin and Ethereum, significant attention was given to Cardano.
ADA, Cardano's token, soared from around 0.03 USD at the start of 2020, to around 0.18 USD at the beginning of 2021, to a high of over 3 USD in September 2021.
In line with the rest of crypto, ADA has since declined to around 0.27 USD, but there are firm reasons to believe that it can be a strong future performer and has long-term utility.
A Patient Community
Crypto Twitter is a useful arena in which to gauge sentiment and support, and it’s evident there that Cardano has an active and overwhelmingly loyal community. On top of that, discussions place a strong focus on tech and decentralization and are not only based on price speculation.
Something else of note is that Cardano receives relentless criticism, and even outright scorn, from other sections of the crypto space. However, this should not be taken as a negative.
Products and networks that are insignificant don’t receive attention, either positive or negative, so for Cardano to be on the receiving end of doubt and derision indicates that, like it or not, it maintains a strong presence and cannot be ignored.
Additionally, the community around Cardano soaks up hostility with seemingly endless patience, signaling no lack of confidence in the Cardano project and contentment to stake ADA (a very simple process) while keeping tabs on tech development.
Staying Power
Cardano has been consistently in or around the top ten cryptocurrencies (depending on whether or not you include stablecoins in your rankings) since it launched in 2017.
Couple this with the above-mentioned community factor, and you have what looks like strong foundations, and a sense that Cardano simply isn’t going away, no matter how the cycles unfold, or which new competitors are pushed, sometimes aggressively, into the market.
When it comes to crypto, relative longevity within a very young ecosystem is of great value, since, at this stage, survival itself is a tough assignment. The longer a crypto network sticks around and is visible, the lower the chances of it fading away.
Technical Advantage
On the Cardano network, secondary tokens, such as NFTs or the new tokens created by DEXes and other applications, are entirely native and handled as easily as ADA itself.
Cardano uses an accounting model called eUTXO, which differs from both Bitcoin’s UTXO model, and Ethereum’s Account model, and brings significant advantages of its own.
While most investors, and, as utility takes precedence, real users, may be unlikely to look under the hood, the broader upshot is that Cardano is cheap to transact on, secure and efficient.
What’s more, the network emphasizes decentralization, with some analysis finding it to be significantly less centralized than its direct competitor Ethereum, while the Founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson appears sincerely committed to the benefits of distributed networks.
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A Different Character
There are further factors that mark Cardano as being different in character to the rest of crypto, revolving around perceptions and public image.
As mentioned, within the crypto space, Cardano is frequently disparaged. There are snipes and swipes, and Cardano has never been regarded as voguish in the ways that Ethereum and Solana sometimes have.
Cardano doesn’t subscribe to a move fast and break things mentality, and comes across, at times, as overly academic.
This might all go down badly in the world of online crypto banter, but from the point of view of future retail investors, who may be coming to crypto for the first time, it can make Cardano a uniquely attractive proposition.
After Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a couple of dog coins (Dogecoin and Shiba Inu), Cardano is one of the few cryptocurrency names that blockchain novices might be familiar with. It is also, arguably, the only upper tier cryptocurrency that projects an unashamedly cautious and restrained approach.
This public image becomes especially relevant when taking into account crypto’s current reputational standing. Essentially, the entire industry’s name has been dragged through the mud by FTX, Alameda Research, Terra/Luna and 2022’s other collapses, all of which created a picture of crypto carnage.
With that in mind, it seems plausible that, in a future bull run, the projects and products that are reputationally removed from careless attitudes, and which have remained untainted by association with recklessness and criminality, may be likely to draw increased interest.
That means Bitcoin, but then, Bitcoin has always been unique. Ethereum may outperform, since Ethereum has network effects on its side, and can lay claim to being at the core of web3 development.
Beyond the top two but still in public view, Cardano, to its credit, can tick the box marked safe and scandal-free, and may possibly, under the right market conditions, have room in the long-term for outsized growth under its own unique terms.
