https://ift.tt/8K17o3e Cardano (ADA) Wallets Surge to Record High Above 3 Million

The number of unique wallets on the Cardano blockchain holding ADA has hit a new all-time high, surpassing the previous record from December 2021.

ADA Wallets Hits 3 Million

In a tweet today, the Proof-of-Stake blockchain announced that it had hit 3 million ADA wallets less than two months after it recorded a total number of 2.5 million addresses.

On Christmas Eve, the project revealed that it has about 2.5 million unique wallets holding ADA, the native cryptocurrency of the Carano ecosystem. Since then, over 500,000 ADA wallets have been added to the network.

According to data from Cardano Blockchain Insights, the total number of ADA wallets is currently sitting at 3,002,727, with an average of 5,122 wallets being added daily.

Additionally, the network currently has about 1,145,479 staked addresses, with more than $25.18 billion staked, roughly 70.78% of ADA’s total supply.

Smart Contracts on Cardano

The increased activity on Cardano started after smart contract capability was deployed last year. Recall that the Cardano blockchain implemented its Alonzo upgrade in September 2021, enabling developers to build smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps) on the network for the first time.

The upgrade enhanced the platform’s scalability and speed and has continued to attract developers and a number of dApps to the Cardano ecosystem. Just a week ago, smart contracts on the blockchain surpassed the 1,000 mark, with the current number standing at 1,190.

Three months after the Alonzo upgrade, Cardano welcomed its first dApp, SundaeSwap, on January 20, 2022, but the milestone led to network congestion, which led to many failed transactions and errors.

Scaling Cardano

To further boost the performance of the network, Cardano’s research and development company, IOHK, announced that the total block size will be increased by 11%, from 72 KB to 80 KB, allowing it to carry more transactions.

Additionally, the company also increased the Plutus script memory unit per transaction from 12.5 million to 14 million, increasing the amount of data that can be included in a single transaction.

ADA has also grown to become the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. At the time of writing, the coin traded above $1.