Recently, there has been some movement in Cardano's DEX—24-hour trading volume increased by 18.3%, breaking through $12.7 million. At first glance, the growth rate seems decent, but compared to the entire blockchain ecosystem, it's quite embarrassing.

The daily trading volume of BNB Chain's DEX is $1.941 billion, while Cardano's is just a fraction of that. Other on-chain indicators also reflect this trend: TVL of $172.8 million, stablecoin market cap of $38.1 million, and an average daily application fee of $96,000. These numbers together indicate that Cardano's ecosystem scale is still very small.

Where is the problem? The technology isn't lagging—Cardano has been continuously iterating and upgrading. The issue lies in starting too late—when smart contracts launched in 2021, Ethereum and BSC had already established their territories, and new players like Solana and Avalanche were also gearing up. Without first-mover advantages and lacking technical dominance, user and developer enthusiasm has never really taken off.

ADA is now priced at $0.365, down 88% from its all-time high of $3. Many early believers have been deeply trapped. Honestly, investing in Cardano now is more about betting whether founder Charles Hoskinson can truly create something that changes the game. If you have faith, you can hold for the long haul, but short-term catalysts are hard to see clearly.