When ADA ran to its all time high in 2021, Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem didn’t exist. As people cashed in, there were no native stablecoins to move into. This wasn’t the case for the other major chains – we were just late to the party. By the time the ecosystem matured, it was already the depths of the bear market. Cardano now has an ecosystem with a range of stablecoins, including USDCx, USDM, and RealFi’s USDrf. Yield opportunities also exist, such as via lending protocols and the yield-bearing sUSDrf. When ADA goes on another run, and people want to lock in gains, they now have a range of Cardano-native options to move into.

I think people are underestimating how big Midnight will be.

Not funding Pogun may go down as one of Cardano’s biggest misses. The treasury needs other sources of revenue (not just reserves and fees) – exactly what Pogun offered. That ship has sailed, but there will be other opportunities. We just have to make sure not to miss them.

RealFi is live! One of the most interesting and innovative Cardano projects.

Rational privacy will change the game.

Privacy wins when it comes without compromise. Midnight makes this possible.

Within the decade, it will be obvious that blockchain was inevitable. The majority of the general public sees crypto as nothing more than a casino at best, and an outright scam at worst. While it’s true that gambling and crime have dominated crypto over the past few years, blockchain has so much more to offer. The tech is solid. In fact, it’s getting better everyday. What’s been lacking are apps that solve real-world problems, and user experiences that attract non-crypto native users. Gambling was an easy PMF – there are billions of $ floating around DeFi looking for something to do. Real-world problems take longer to solve, and require core features to be established first. Privacy and identity are good examples. Cardano is an extremely secure blockchain, providing a strong decentralised foundation. But without an identity framework, and a way to ensure privacy, many types of apps simply can’t be built without running a bunch of off-chain stuff to fill the gaps. Projects like Midnight aim to address this, providing the missing puzzle pieces that will allow blockchain to finally achieve mainstream adoption. Crypto isn’t dead, far from it – it’s just getting warmed up for a generational run.

If you’re a builder on Cardano, this is a great opportunity.

Nice to see some green candles for a change. Blockchain has massive potential, particularly in a world of AI, fragile systems, privacy breaches, and governance failures. I think the market has been severely underpricing what it’s capable of.

When the price is down, it can be easy to think it’s all over, and Cardano’s best days are behind us. But the reality is the ecosystem still has a lot of fight left. Cardano is moving forward in key areas: - DeFi liquidity and integrations – the passing of @alphagrowth1’s PRIME proposal will give a much-needed boost to our DeFi ecosystem. Now that integrations like USDCx are in place, it’s time to focus on liquidity. - Performance – Leios will massively increase Cardano’s performance, while Peras will improve settlement speed. L2s are also being developed. - Privacy and user experience – @MidnightNtwrk will bring rational privacy and better UX, enabling selective disclosure, gasless transactions, easier onboarding, and disaster recovery solutions like insurance. - Post-quantum – Cardano Vision 2026 includes post-quantum preparedness research (leading to a CIP). - Adoption – Projects like Midnight, RealFi, Pogun, 5am, and many others will bring new users to Cardano. PRIME specially targets DeFi users. This is on top of Cardano’s industry-leading security and reliability, decentralisation, and governance. Of course we are not there yet, but I still believe Cardano has a bright future.

Cardano PRIME has crossed the 67% threshold. There’s still a couple of days to go, but it looks like a done deal.

It is frustrating to see some large DReps consistently vote without rationales. E.g. @everstake_pool (169M ADA from 8,743 delegators) voted no on Cardano PRIME. Of course they can vote as they see best, but it would be nice to know why, given they have over 3% voting power.

If you are a DRep I would encourage you to vote yes for Anvil’s Ticketing Platform proposal. Building on Cardano enables the platform to enforce royalties, control scalping, and provide an open marketplace for buyers and sellers. If successful not only will this result in transaction volume, the full treasury investment will be returned over time using 25% of marketplace fees. Once paid off there is an ongoing contribution of 5%. This is exactly the kind of business the treasury should support. As with any investment there is risk. But the team have a solid track record and the proposal is strong. tempo.vote/governance-action…