Cardano (ADA) has had an impressive start to the year as it broke through the psychological $1 bulwark and fabricated an all-time high at $i.50. The impressive 590% year-to-date proceeds took place as the network transformed into a multi-nugget network, similar to Ethereum, and this could bode well for Cardano'south futurity.

Cardano price at Binance, USDT. Source: TradingView

The rally'due south terminal leg seems to be related to the Coinbase Pro listing, announced on March 16, and this resulted in a renewed push button to $1.47 on March 18.

Every bit Cardano's price increased, so did its spot trading volume and on-chain transfers, which surpassed Litecoin (LTC). The increased involvement from investors also acquired Cardano's futures contracts open interest to increase by five-fold in 2021.

Cardano futures aggregate open up interest. Source: Bybt

Make no mistake, breaking the $1 billion open involvement barrier is a feat that only (BTC) and Ether (ETH) have accomplished. Moreover, Ether held a $2 billion open interest just three months ago.

Therefore, to truly empathise if Cardano really deserves the third position in the market capitalization ranking, one should compare its spot book and on-chain metrics against other altcoins.

ADA trading volume and on-concatenation metrics strengthen

Regardless of the cost movement, low trading activity reflects a small user base or a lack of new entrants. Therefore, one should await Cardano'due south volume to be among the top 5.

Top 10 crypto year-to-appointment trading volume, USD. Source: Nomics

According to Nomics transparent exchange volume, ADA had a $97.5 billion trading volume in 2021, surpassing Polkadot (DOT), Ripple (XRP), and Litecoin.

Although this is promising, one should also dig into on-chain metrics to understand if futures open involvement and spot volume reflect this network activeness.

Daily active addresses provide a more than detailed view on network usage. Still, this data cannot exist trusted blindly. The higher the fees, the fewer incentives in that location are to inflate the number.

Daily active addresses, 14-day average. Source: CoinMetrics

Cardano definitively seems to exist decoupling from other altcoins, reaching 85,000 daily active addresses. Moreover, there appears to be no indication of fabricated numbers as its growth path seems organic and in line with the volume action.

To confirm whether those addresses accept been active, 1 should appraise transfers and transactions or the total corporeality of value effectively circulating on each network.

Transfers and transactions (USD) fourteen-day average. Source: CoinMetrics

This time around, Cardano'south force is shown in total every bit the network daily transfers and transactions average $four.5 billion per twenty-four hour period. That amount is at to the lowest degree 6 times higher than the remaining competitors. Therefore, ADA's on-chain action provides some support for the $45 billion market capitalization.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro also began to detect ADA'south bullish outlook on March xvi, before the recent price rising.

The VORTECS™ score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current marketplace conditions derived from a combination of information points, including market sentiment, trading volume, recent toll movements, and Twitter activity.

VORTECS™ score vs. ADA price (white). Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ score registered a loftier of 66 on March 16, twelve hours before the Coinbase list proclamation. The cryptocurrency then hiked to $1.23, an xviii% gain since the signal arose.

Volumes and on-chain information are important metrics, but Cardano might have a short window of opportunity to have reward of challenges caused past congestion on the Ethereum network. ADA toll might recede unless actual use cases that involve decentralized applications or interconnectivity bridges that piece of work to solve the decentralized finance scaling problem.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reverberate the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading motion involves chance. Y'all should conduct your own research when making a determination.