The recent FTX blowup and subsequent bear market put a severe dent in crypto markets, but it has not prevented Cardano from reaching a new milestone. Cardano (ADA), ranked the eighth most popular cryptocurrency with a market cap of over $11 billion, has just ushered in the first USD-backed stablecoin, iUSD.
Indigo Launches Cardano’s First USD-Backed Stablecoin
Cardano entered a new phase after the debut of its first fiat-backed stablecoin.
According to the Indigo team, it has launched iUSD stablecoin and other synthetic assets on Cardano. Indigo is a decentralized synthetic assets issuance protocol built atop Cardano.
iUSD is reportedly the first stablecoin to be launched on the Cardano blockchain. Talks of a Cardano-based stablecoin have been going on for quite some time now. Market observers have forecasted that it would help boost the Cardano decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, which has fared significantly worse than its rivals.
Cardano launched smart contracting capabilities back in September 2021 after the implementation of the Alonzo hard fork, and it still sees significantly less activity than most other leading smart contract-enabled blockchains.
Indigo Protocol indicated that the value of the iUSD stablecoin would be tied to the price of the United States dollar. In other words, it will be backed by USD reserves and maintain a price of $1.
As for the synthetic assets, they will give users exposure without having to own the underlying asset. Indigo says these assets are individually overcollateralized.
Other Cardano Developments
It’s worth noting that more stablecoins are set to launch on Cardano. Emurgo, a blockchain accelerator and official commercial arm of Cardano, recently announced plans to launch USDA, a fully fiat-backed stablecoin, by 2023. The stablecoin offering would be regulatory compliant and designed to shield Web3 participants from crypto’s notorious volatility.
Overcollateralized algorithmic stablecoin Djed is also set to go live on the Cardano mainnet in January 2023 after a successful audit and a series of rigorous stress tests.
Cardano has been witnessing booming developments in recent weeks despite the crumbling of Sam Bankman-Fried’s empire, which has led to genuine scepticism about the long-term viability of crypto amongst investors. A few days ago, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson laid out plans to develop a new privacy-oriented blockchain dubbed Midnight and an accompanying token called Dust.
ADA Price Performance
Cardano’s ADA was up 2.9% in the past 24 hours, trading for $0.315356, as per CoinGecko data. Nonetheless, this spate of development news, though a bullish milestone, has not been enough to reignite a full-blown bull rally and completely reverse the bearish trend.
The coin is still down 5.5% in the past week as markets reel from continued fallout and cross-contamination from FTX’s spectacular fall from grace. It remains to be seen whether the Layer 1 token can gain the strength to bounce off crucial support.
