The arrival of 2023 has also led to a long-awaited upswing in the crypto market. For example, LDO is expected to rise in price in March. This bullish assessment is already causing turmoil in an otherwise sluggish market.

The crypto market always follows its logic, even if it is elusive. All concept sectors or specific coins have their own logic for value discovery. In other words, sectors always gain momentum and build their potential before they become sensations.

But after the rise of LDO, how to read the long-term logic and find the next popular sector?

Cardano's long-term expectation of ADA

Although most crypto projects have been affected by the recent downturn in the secondary market, Cardano ranks 7th on the list of non-stable coins with a market cap of $13 billion (CoinGecko data as of January 11, 2023). This ranking is only after Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB and XRP.

When the market started to recover, the secondary market price of ADA also performed well. It increased by 57% from $0.239 from January to $0.376 at the end of March, far outperforming most other public chain tokens over the same period.

Previously, CaptainAltCoin made a 2023 price forecast for Cardano, stating that ADA could recover early this year and reach $0.6395 by September this year. This means that ADA has the potential to double in the secondary market in at least the next 9 months.

So what are the catalysts behind ADA 's recent strong performance and optimistic institutional forecasts for the future?

Long-term catalyst of the Vasil upgrade

Since the Vasil upgrade last September 22, Cardano has significantly improved its Internet speed and scalability. It can now support more complex DApps with a better user experience and seems to have finally moved closer to its goal of building a smart-contract platform.

As infrastructure has improved in recent months, the Cardano ecosystem has seen a gradual influx of market capital. This has opened up a new narrative and valuation space for Cardano's "old public chain", laying the foundation for a new wave of DApps, new users, and ultimately the growth of the Cardano ecosystem TVL.

It is currently developing other applications. Among them NFT, DeFi, DAO and other new innovations are expected to grow in the long term and will be key to Cardano's ecology. They certainly contain the "rare dark horses" for the next crypto investment boom.

For example, Adaverse, the global incubation investment fund backed by Cardano, is already laying the groundwork to develop and invest in  projects in Cardano's ecosystem with its first-hand resources and investment funds. With these movements, it will build a broad Web3 DApp ecology based on Cardano's blockchain infrastructure.

Based on the Cardano infrastructure, Adaverse aims to help developers eliminate the complicated workload and focus on the business logic of the product. This specialization increases the efficiency of development and operations while reducing the corresponding costs. It also helps developers synergize faster with other Cardano DApps so they can share the explosive dividends in the second phase of Cardano's development.

Cardano's NFT sector is taking off

At the same time, Cardano has also seen an upswing in the NFT sector, against the odds. Since the Vasil upgrade last September, Cardano's NFT volume reached $19 million in October, making it the third largest NFT network after Ethereum and Solana.

In terms of overall ranking, Cardano's user activity also increased significantly after the Vasil upgrade. The latest CryptoSlam data shows that the average daily NFT trading volume on the Cardano network has been around $250,000 recently.

At the same time, Cardano has also seen an apparent increase in attention to some NFT projects listed on its platform, such as the Clay Nation NFT series. Featuring clay animation, the Clay Nation NFT series was acquired by Snoop Dog and built on Cardano as an art and culture project . After the release of a MV produced by Snoop Dogg and his son Champ Medici, the Clay Nation NFT series has gained more and more followers. To date, the total volume of this collection has exceeded 31 million ADA (over US$9 million).

In addition, Ape Society - the largest NFT project on Cardano - has also exceeded $1900 in total volume with over 18,000 transactions, undoubtedly making it one of the most popular NFT series. This radiant performance of Ape Society indirectly shows that Cardano's NFT sector is gradually gaining momentum and becoming a leader among public chains.

Therefore, participating in ADA stakings and receiving the corresponding staking rewards are, in a sense, the most direct way to share the dividends of Cardano's ecological development. Basically, you can get the "double benefits" from token prices (increased demand in sectors like NFT and the development of the smart contract ecosystem after Vasil's hard fork upgrade) and staking rewards (3.42%).

Overall, the long-term competitiveness of Cardano's smart contract ecosystem and the stable "double benefits" of ADA staking have increased Cardano's value significantly and brought Cardano into the spotlight of the crypto stage. It is expected that Cardano will have an even more promising future.

Participate in ADA staking to share the "Double Benefits" from Cardano ecosystem

In addition to long-term growth prospects, Cardano users can receive stable income from the bear market through staking ADA.

According to StakingRewards, the volume of ADA staking on Cardano is the second largest public chain ecology for staking after Ethereum. Its APY is around 3.42%.

Meanwhile, the constant Black Swan events over the past year and the ever-tightening political environment have kept the entire crypto market in the doldrums for more than a year. As a result, compared with the generous dividends received in a bullish market, it is more important to effectively withdraw capital and find a relatively stable income distribution in the current cold market environment.

How to stake ADA and earn income?

So let us move on to the practical part. How to stake ADA on Cardano as a regular user and get a stable income?

The first step is to own a Cardano wallet. There are many wallets on the market that can be used to store ADA. Here we recommend the beginner-friendly staking wallet Yoroi, which is perfect for anyone who wants to stake ADA tokens.

1. Download the Yoroi plug-in wallet

For security reasons, you can download a browser-compatible plug-in wallet from the Yoroi website. We will explain how to use the plug-in wallet for Chrome in this article.

2. Create a new wallet

You can either restore an existing wallet, use a hardware wallet, or create a new wallet. Here we will show you how to create a new wallet.

3. Create a username and password

Next, give the wallet a name and create a password for access. Appropriate mnemonics are created during this process.

4. Save the mnemonics

Since "private keys are assets," it is important to store the mnemonics in a safe place and make sure you do not lose them. If you are unfortunate enough to lose them, you will no longer have access to your wallet and the funds in it cannot be recovered.

5. Deposit ADA tokens

Now you need to deposit some ADA tokens into the newly created wallet. Click on the "Receive" button and it will show you the personal address where we will receive the ADA.

6. Withdraw ADA tokens from the exchange

You need to copy the receiving address from the Yoroi wallet and enter it into the withdrawal address of the exchange. The withdrawal can then be completed.

7. Start delegating ADA tokens

Click on the "Delegation List" column in the upper right corner to select any of the Staking pools.

If you know the name of the Staking pool where you want to deploy the tokens, you can also simply enter the name in the search bar and delegate the tokens.

8. Complete the staking

Once you have selected a Staking pool, enter the number of tokens you want to stake, confirm your password and then you can start collecting staking rewards.

The operating fee varies from one Staking pool to another. For your first authorization, you will have to wait 20 days before your stake is approved. Once approved, ADA rewards will be issued after each circle (5 days per circle).

About Adaverse