Cryptocurrency whales — crypto-speak for major holders — stockpiled an unprecedented number of Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA) coins last week as the total value locked in the network's decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem reached a new all-time high of nearly $161 million.
What Happened: The balance held by addresses with 1 million to 10 million coins rose to a record of 12 billion ADA (worth just under $10 million as of press time), CoinDesk reported on Monday.
See Also: How High Can Cardano (ADA) Go?
Lucas Outumuro, who leads research at IntoTheBlock, the cryptocurrency data firm that provided the data, told CoinDesk that "Cardano appears to be showing signs of promise for more to come after years without launching smart contracts." He believes that this "appears to be translating into an accumulation of ADA from large players."
Outmuro also said that Cardano is now showing traction in its application layer, and data provided by data service DeFi Llama substantiates the claim, showing that its ecosystem of decentralized finance protocols has nearly $161 million of locked funds. He also added that decentralized exchanges "on Cardano have raised capital from reputable crypto funds such as Three Arrows Capital."
Cardano is a blockchain platform that rivals the likes of Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH).
ADA Price Action: Cardano traded at $0.838 at press time, after seeing its price fall by about 0.5% over the last 24 hours.
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