What you need to know:
- ADA’s price fell 58.6% quarter-on-quarter to $0.33, pushing Cardano’s market cap down to $12.2 billion.
- Governance reforms and treasury expansions improved the network’s resilience.
- DEX and NFT sectors grew despite the general contraction in network activity.
Cardano’s ADA saw a sharp decline in the fourth quarter of 2025, falling 58.6% quarter-over-quarter to $0.33, according to Cardano figures. Messari’s report of February 20. Circulating market capitalization fell to $12.2 billion from $29.5 billion in the third quarter, moving ADA to eleventh in the global rankings.
Source: Messer
The average number of daily transactions fell by 27.4% to 25,970, while the number of active addresses fell by 30% to 18,641. Although there were fewer participants, average transactions per address increased by 27% to 1.70, indicating that the remaining users were more active.
Source: Messer
Total ADA stakes decreased 2% from the previous quarter to 21.4 billion, with stake interest falling to 57.80%, or approximately $7.1 billion in USD value.
Total network costs decreased by 38% in USD to $524,202 and by 28.9% in ADA to 742,242 ADA, reflecting the price drop.
Also read: Cardano Price Prediction 2026: Can ADA Break $0.30 or Fall to $0.20?
Administrative reforms Strengthening the network
Cardano made significant management changes in the fourth quarter. Following the resignation of the Cardano Atlantic Council from the Constitutional Committee, snap elections restored the committee to its full strength of seven members.
Cardano Curia won the election via delegated ADA votes, and the second-place candidate, Christina Gianelloni, was added as an alternate member to avoid future governance problems.
The community has extended the Net Change Limit (NCL) for government bond withdrawals by eight periods, until February 8, 2026. The ADA limit of 350 million remains in place, preventing an ‘expenditure cliff’ and allowing continued financing of development projects.
Cardano’s treasury rose 4.46% quarter-on-quarter to ADA 1.67 billion, but its USD value fell 53.7% to $585.9 million due to the price of ADA.
Source: Messer
Highlights of the Cardano ecosystem: DEXs, DeFi and NFTs
Although overall activity on the network decreased, not all components of the ecosystem performed poorly. Average daily trading volume on DEXs rose 17.3% to $4.44 million.
Source: Messer
Minswap continued to lead the market with 72.4% of total swap volume, thanks to its listing on KuCoin and a buyback and burn program. WingRiders and Danogo increased their trading volumes, while traditional DEXs such as MuesliSwap and Splash fell.
The total value (TVL) in DeFi contracts fell 48.1% to $177.3 million, which was worse than the overall market’s decline of 25.2%.
Source: Messer
Minswap dominated the market with a 27% market share. Average daily sales of Cardano’s NFTs rose 3.6% to 276, while trading volume rose 133.4% to $612,454.
The most notable event was the sale of the “GoodSamaritan” NFT series for $44.8 million. The stablecoins remained steady, with USDM at $14.7 million and USDA at $11.7 million.
Source: Messer
Also read: Cardano (ADA) risks even more downsides if support fails: failure or bounce?
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