Cody McGrath 
Cardano’s (ADA) witnessed a prolonged rally after a surge in NFT trading on the blockchain and positive crypto sentiment prompted further ADA purchases.
ADA has increased by 14% in the last 24 hours to $0.624, taking its weekly gains to approximately 22%. The token has outperformed its major crypto peers in the past week amid anticipation of a blockchain upgrade and new features.
However, the rise in ADA on Monday appears to be fueled by increased interest in Cardano’s NFT capabilities.
Cardano surpassed Ethereum to become the third-largest NFT blockchain
On Monday, Cardano’s daily NFT sales hit $1.3 million, making it the third-largest NFT player behind Solana and Ethereum.
A major reason for this surge likely stems from users moving out of Solana into Cardano after the former’s recent shutdown. Several NFT traders expressed their dissatisfaction with the frequent Solana outages on Twitter, with some stating outright that they would switch to Cardano.
Solana’s daily NFT sales have dropped nearly 20% in the last 24 hours, to $2.4 million, according to Cryptoslam data. SOL, the blockchain’s native token, has also underperformed the market, falling 6% in the last week.
Cardano-based play-to-earn game Cornucopias land sales, currently make up a large part of the blockchain’s NFT sales at nearly 5.1%. JPG Store is Cardano’s largest NFT marketplace, accounting for over 90% of daily volumes.
According to Cryptoslam data, the blockchain has now surpassed ImmutableX in daily sales.
ADA gains are fueled by NFT interest and Vasil fork anticipation
ADA has profited from the increased NFT trade. However, the token has risen in anticipation of a major update.
Cardano developer Charles Hoskinson said new Cardano features will be announced later this week.
Github data showed that the number of developers working on Cardano recently reached a record high. Large whale traders have been more interested in ADA as a result of this. Thereby contributing to the token’s recent gain.