Cardano’s Price and Usage Fall as Network Upgrades Fail to Impress: Report

Crypto research platform Messari has published its State of Cardano Q2 2025 report, outlining the network’s progress in governance, DeFi, funding, and ecosystem growth.

In June, Cardano held its first on-chain election to form a Constitutional Committee tasked with reviewing and approving governance changes. This marked a transition under the CIP-1694 model, moving governance from being developer-led to community-led.

The Intersect governance group approved a budget of 275.3 million ADA, managed directly on-chain. Millions of ADA were allocated to support new projects building within the Cardano ecosystem.

The report also mentioned the Midnight Network’s Glacier Drop airdrop, which distributed NIGHT tokens to 30 million wallets across eight blockchains. Additionally, the launch of Veridian and Reeve on the Cardano Foundation demonstrated the ongoing expansion of Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem.

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Cardano’s Market Outlook in Q2 2025 

The report summarized Cardano’s market outlook in Q2, which shows that despite all the efforts it put in, the asset still faced a major downturn. 

According to the report, “Cardano’s usage declined in Q2 despite broader strength in crypto markets. ADA’s market cap fell 13% QoQ to $20.7 billion as its price decreased 14% to $0.57, underperforming the Layer-1 sector, which gained 16% over the same period. Quarterly fees dropped 45% to $724,600, and average daily transactions declined 36% to 31,200.” 

Unlike Cardano’s ADA usage, its NFT sales increased by 5% QoQ (Quarter on Quarter) to 250 in Q2. During the period, the JPG.store remained Cardano’s top NFT marketplace in terms of transaction volume. It even became the fifth most popular Cardano protocol in Q2. 

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