Given that there are nearly 20,000 different cryptocurrencies in existence, it makes sense that establishing a strong crypto brand would be one way to stand out from the crowd and build a loyal ecosystem of developers, users, and investors.
So it was interesting to see, for the first time ever, a study of how the world's top cryptos stack up as brands. The 2022 Brand Intimacy Study, from brand relations agency MBLM, analyzed how hundreds of popular brands were establishing emotional connections with their customers and fans on a worldwide basis.
When it comes to crypto, the results might shock you. If you thought Bitcoin or Ethereum were the top crypto brands, you'd be wrong. You'd also be wrong if you picked up-and-comer Solana. Instead, the world's top crypto brand is Cardano. The report looked at more than 600 brands across nearly 20 different industries. Cardano ranked No. 1 within the crypto industry and No. 26 overall.
What makes Cardano a great brand?
Since Cardano ranked as the top crypto brand, MBLM included a special industry feature on it in the report to showcase what makes this crypto so special. MBLM used artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data tools to comb through all the comments that people were making about Cardano online and determined that the two keywords at the heart of the Cardano brand were "future" and "value." The fire emoji, too, was a popular way to show love for Cardano.
Image source: Getty Images.
According to the report, people think that the future of Cardano is "exciting" due to all the innovations happening on the blockchain, including the ability to stake Cardano and the ability to participate in new decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. And people didn't seem too annoyed by the fact that the pace of development at Cardano seems to be taking longer than many people wanted. In fact, one sample comment was, "Cardano is moving along nicely."
The link between brand ranking and market performance
If you're a Cardano investor, this should be exciting news. It means that the approach pioneered by Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson -- a slow, methodical approach to software development that minimizes bugs and errors -- is gaining traction with crypto developers. They trust in the Cardano brand and are willing to build on top of the blockchain platform. We've already seen a blossoming of decentralized applications in the wake of Cardano's 2021 tech upgrade, and we could be seeing something similar in the wake of this year's upgrade (known as the Vasil Hard Fork).
And there's another reason to be excited: There appears to be a direct correlation between brand strength and market performance. Since this is the first year that crypto appeared in the study, there is no historical evidence from the crypto world. But there is plenty of evidence from the stock market world, where MBLM says that the world's top brands also tend to outperform major stock market indices. This makes intuitive sense, especially considering the brands at the top of this year's list: Disney, Tesla, Apple, and Sony.
Going forward, Cardano will face plenty of competition from other Layer 1 blockchains, including the likes of Ethereum and Solana. Whichever blockchain turns out to be the long-term winner could be a direct function of brand loyalty. In short, brand loyalty is turning into a source of huge competitive advantage in the crypto world. One example is the brand-centric approach used by Solana, which is trying to become the Apple of the crypto world. But Solana ranked behind Cardano and Bitcoin in the brand report, which analyzed 21 different cryptos.
Is Cardano a long-term buy?
So, if you've been on the fence about investing in Cardano, just know that while Cardano might not have the instant name recognition of Bitcoin, it has become a remarkably strong crypto brand. While one of the keywords used to describe Bitcoin in the report was "skyrocketing," the keywords for Cardano were "future" and "value." And that's what makes Cardano a long-term buy and hold. It's a crypto that you know will be there at the end when potentially tens of thousands of "get rich quick" cryptos will be in the dustbin of history.
