Crypto: Why Cardano is being accused of becoming a useless network

Cardano returns to the center of criticism. This time the reproach is direct. The network has been accused of piling up promises without being able to establish strong usage in DeFi or mainstream applications. Behind the shocking phrase is a simple question: Does Cardano still matter in crypto because of its actual utility, or mainly because of its history and community?

An attack that hits Cardano’s true weak point

The fee is brutal, but it comes with a hard-to-ignore observation: Cardano’s DeFi remains small compared to its rivals. At the time of writing, Cardano’s TVL is around $136 million on DeFiLlama. Ethereum is over $55 billion, Solana is over $6.5 billion, and even Sui, much newer, shows nearly $569 million. The gap is no longer marginal. It becomes structural;

Ali Martinez didn’t just throw jabs. He pointed back to a cryptocurrency problem that has dogged Cardano for years: its lack of visible economic traction. In cryptocurrency, stories count, but locked-in capital, volumes and activity always speak louder in the end. Still, Cardano lags behind.

The problem is not that Cardano is empty. The network has a loyal base, recognized staking activity and stricter technical positioning than many other crypto chains. The problem is elsewhere. This rigor has yet to produce a network effect comparable to Ethereum in DeFi or Solana in rapid and speculative use. When the market becomes competitive, slowness eventually becomes costly.

Thus, the criticism seems exaggerated in form but less absurd in substance. To say that Cardano is “useless” is an understatement. To say that it still hasn’t found its dominant adoption engine is more accurate. And this is where the problem becomes serious for crypto in general: a big name can remain visible for a long time without being able to turn its reputation into massive usage.

A historic delay that still clings to the crypto project

Cardano was launched much earlier than several of its current competitors. However, smart contracts were not activated until the September 2021 Alonzo update. This delay left a boulevard for other ecosystems to attract developers, liquidity and users before it.

This choice did not come by chance. The Cardano crypto project has always preferred a slow, documented, peer-reviewed, almost academic method. On paper, this approach inspires solidity. In a market as nervous as cryptocurrencies, it can also provide the image of a network that is always in the making and never really explodes. The promise of seriousness is not enough when the competition publishes faster, attracts more projects and captures more volume.

This is probably Cardano’s silent drama. The project did not lack ambition. Mostly it lacked timing. In crypto, coming up with good ideas behind others often means entering an already full room. You can still find a place. But then you have to offer something significantly different. Today, this distinction is erased for part of the market.

ADA crypto pays the price of doubt

Crypto ADA reflects this malaise. Its all-time high is $3.09, according to CoinGecko. It is now trading around $0.26, about 91.7% below its all-time high. Even the reflection of the previous cycle was not enough to rewrite the narrative. The asset rebounded, yes, but without restoring a lasting belief in the network’s trajectory.

This point is important. In cryptocurrencies, a drop in price does not automatically mean that a project is doomed. However, when this decline is accompanied by continued weakness in TVL, revenues and volumes, the market begins to ask a tougher question: what exactly is this token still worth?

Cardano still retains a rare asset: its brand remains well-known, its core community is strong, and its name continues to circulate among large caps. It’s nothing. But in cryptocurrencies, survival is not always enough. One must become desirable again. And for that, Cardano will have to show more than just a neatly written promise. It will have to prove that it can finally attract usage, capital and attention at the same time, even as fear lurks and the crypto market tightens.

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The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and should not be construed as investment advice. Before making any investment decision, do your own research.