Development activity on both Cardano and Polkadot has remained active, but DOT could be more consistent. While both experienced declines during market downturns, Polkadot developer activity recovered faster and more frequently.
However, there is a greater contrast with user activity. polka dot Daily active addresses have been a few thousand and increase only occasionally.
Source: DeFiLlama
cardano, On the other hand, it still attracts many more users, with monthly active addresses in the hundreds of thousands!
Activity versus survival
Source: DeFiLlama
At first glance, neither Cardano nor Polkadot seem particularly busy at the moment, but they are different in subtle ways.
Cardano’s TVL has been on a steady downward trend over the past few months, so capital is moving away. That said, the ADA still sees occasional increases in application fees. This means that users show up during busy periods… even if they don’t stay long.
Source: Token Terminal
Polkadot’s numbers, to say the least, are flatter. Rates and revenues have been consistently low, with no significant spikes to speak of. The network has also remained stable, although it has not generated sustained use.
Who is still being talked about?
For most of the period, ADA has had greater volume and social dominance, even in calmer times. While that doesn’t always translate into price action, there is a shared mindset.
Source: Sentiment
Polkadot, on the other hand, only saw brief spikes in attention, mostly in late November. Outside of those moments, DOT has quickly disappeared from the social radar.
2026 watchlist
This year will decide which chain is still important. Cardano is driving areas of execution (education, governance, RWA, and enterprise Web3 links) that do not lead to conversations, but are compounding over time. Progress is slow, but measurable, and that consistency will be important if adoption really increases.
On the other hand, Polkadot is committed to structure. The planned reward will be halved in March 2026 and a proposed cap aims to correct long-term inflation just as Web3 goes mainstream. If Web3 gaming, RWAs, and data ownership explode, Polkadot infrastructure could become essential.
Final thoughts
- Cardano still seems alive thanks to users and mindset sharing.
- Polkadot is relatively quiet, but the reward halving and supply cap could change things.
