Cardano has come under intense pressure after plunging to its lowest price level in over five years, triggering a wave of fear across the cryptocurrency market. The sharp decline follows growing concerns about the ecosystem’s future after founder Charles Hoskinson warned of potential challenges ahead, leaving investors questioning whether ADA is approaching a historic buying opportunity or facing deeper trouble. Cardano Price Collapse Sparks Wave Of Market Attention According to Santiment Intelligence, Cardano has quickly become one of the most talked-about assets in the cryptocurrency market after ADA plunged below $0.16 for the first time since December 2020. The sharp decline sparked widespread discussion across the industry and drew renewed attention to the network’s prospects. Related Reading: Cardano Price Could Close May Below This Multi-Year Support — What’s Next? The majority of the attention is linked to growing concerns surrounding Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson’s recent comments about taking a break. In addition, he warned that the ecosystem could face a potential wave of failures due to project shutdowns and funding difficulties, adding to the uncertainty surrounding the asset. Santiment noted that the market reaction was immediate, with both social and on-chain activity rising sharply. Cardano’s social dominance climbed to roughly 0.52%, its highest level of 2026, meaning that more than one out of every 190 cryptocurrency-related conversations on social media was focused on ADA. Furthermore, network activity experienced a notable increase during the period of heightened volatility. Daily active addresses surged to 28,459, marking the highest reading in four months. The spike suggests that users remained highly engaged with the network as the price decline fueled intense debate and bearish sentiment among traders. Loyal Community Refuses To Back Down Santiment Intelligence noted that despite the recent wave of negative sentiment surrounding Cardano, the network continues to benefit from one of the most dedicated communities in the cryptocurrency space. ADA holders have consistently remained active through multiple market cycles, often supporting the ecosystem even during periods when institutional participation was limited. Related Reading: Cardano Strengthens Cross-Chain Connectivity Across The Blockchain Ecosystem – What This Means For The Network The analytics firm pointed out that the recent surge in daily active addresses suggests many users are still closely engaged with the network and monitoring developments rather than abandoning Cardano amid the price decline. However, Santiment cautioned that while retail investors have historically played a major role in Cardano’s growth, the market may require stronger institutional interest and broader adoption catalysts to reverse the current downtrend. Looking ahead, the coming weeks and months could prove critical for ADA. With the asset trading near multi-year lows, investors are likely to focus on ecosystem expansion, successful project launches, and signs of renewed confidence from leadership. Positive developments in these areas could help reinforce the long-term vision that Cardano supporters have maintained for years and potentially attract fresh capital back into the ecosystem. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from Tradingview.com
After hitting its cycle high last August, the Cardano price has continued in a downward slope toward lows not seen since 2024. Despite the calls of an altseason early into May, the ADA token has erased all the gains realized at the beginning of the month. Interestingly, the current Cardano price structure suggests the altcoin may be at risk of further downside in the coming months if it closes below a significant support level in May. ADA Price Could Fall 78% If This Support Is Broken In a May 30th post on the X platform, crypto analyst Ali Martinez revealed that the Cardano price has been hovering around a make-or-break level over the past couple of weeks. Looking at the highlighted monthly chart, the altcoin is at risk of closing the month of May below a major historical support level. Related Reading: Can Ripple’s Fed Master Account Approval Trigger A New XRP Bull Run? AI Model Says $80 Is Possible As shown in the chart below, the Cardano price has been trending within a multi-year channel formation since 2021. After reaching the upper boundary of the channel at $1.195 in early 2025, the cryptocurrency’s price has been in a steady decline, losing a significant support level around $0.544 last November. Now, as Martinez identified, the next definitive floor in sight for the Cardano price is around $0.247, which has acted as major support in the past. In fact, this support level kick-started the last rally that saw the price of ADA reach $1.195. However, the Cardano price has drifted beneath this support level over the past few days, falling to as low as $0.232. With the end of May rapidly approaching, it would be interesting to see whether the ADA candlestick eventually closes below the $0.247 floor over the next day. Martinez wrote in the X post: As the monthly close approaches, maintaining a position below $0.247 alters the immediate market structure, suggesting a deeper valuation phase is underway. According to the crypto analyst, if the Cardano price sustains its close beneath this historical support level, the next “high-conviction macro targets for long-term accumulation” lie around $0.113 and $0.051. Essentially, investors could see the price drop by nearly 78% (from the current price point) if ADA remains below $0.247. However, it is worth noting that the altcoin could bounce back to around $0.544 if this major channel support holds and demand returns to the crypto market. Cardano Price At A Glance As of this writing, the price of ADA stands at around $0.237, reflecting an over 2% jump in the past 24 hours. Related Reading: Could XRP Hit $10 This Bull Run? World’s Highest IQ Holder Thinks So Featured image from Solodev, chart from TradingView
On-chain data shows the Cardano addresses with at least 1 million tokens have seen their combined holdings hit the highest point since 2017. Large Cardano Holders Have Continued To Accumulate Recently In a new post on X, on-chain analytics firm Santiment has discussed the latest trend in the Supply Distribution of the large Cardano investors. The “Supply Distribution,” here refers to an indicator that tells us about the amount of ADA supply that a given wallet group is holding right now. Related Reading: XRP Flashes TD Sequential Buy Signal, Analyst Eyes Rebound Addresses or investors are divided into these cohorts based on the number of coins that they are carrying in their balance. The 1 to 10 coins group, for instance, includes all holders carrying between 1 and 10 ADA in their balance. In the context of the current discussion, the range of interest is the one with a lower bound of 1 million ADA and no upper bound. At the current exchange rate of the cryptocurrency, the cutoff for the group converts to about $230,000. This is a substantial amount, so only the investors with a notable amount of capital would fall inside this range. Below is the chart shared by Santiment that shows the trend in the Supply Distribution for these Cardano millionaire wallets over the past decade. As is visible in the graph, the Cardano supply held by the 1 million+ ADA wallets has been following an uptrend since 2024, indicating that entities like the sharks and whales have been loading up on the asset. As Santiment noted: When key stakeholders accumulate, this is generally a sign of confidence from the groups that are most deeply invested and have the most to gain/lose. Interestingly, the upward trajectory in the Supply Distribution of the millionaire wallets has maintained despite the bearish shift that the cryptocurrency sector as a whole has faced since Q4 2025. Thus, it would appear that the price drawdown hasn’t dissuaded large investors from accumulating the altcoin. Following the latest continuation to the metric’s uptrend, its value has reached the 25.11 billion tokens mark. This is the most amount of Cardano that 1 million+ ADA investors have held since December 2017. In terms of supply percentage, these key holders currently control 64.49% of all coins in circulation, the highest share since July 2020. “As a long-term indicator, this is a bullish signal for those who can be patient enough to hold,” said the analytics firm. Related Reading: Bitcoin Pulls Back, But Futures Traders Turn Bullish: Long Squeeze Setup? Though, while accumulation from Cardano sharks and whales has been pretty consistent for a while now, the indicator could still be to keep an eye on. From the chart, it’s apparent that the indicator showed a similar trajectory during the 2022 bear market, until the large holders participated in a selloff that took the coin to its lowest levels for the cycle. ADA Price At the time of writing, Cardano is trading around $0.23, down nearly 6% over the past week. Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
Charles Hoskinson, Cardano's founder, is turning his public focus back to the blockchain network, and Midnight, one of his largest ventures outside crypto, prepares to close. The shift comes at a difficult moment for the Cardano founder. His Wyoming health care project is winding down after years of investment, while the blockchain he helped build […]
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Cardano could lose a core group of scientists if Input Output fails to secure treasury funding for a slate of research and infrastructure proposals that are still awaiting approval. Last month, Input Output, the development firm behind the Cardano network, revealed that it was seeking $46.8 million to finance its operations for the 2026 development […]
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Zcash (ZEC), the market’s leading privacy-focused cryptocurrency, has delivered a massive performance, with year-to-date data showing ZEC is up more than 1,200%, dramatically outpacing major coins. Cardano (ADA), by contrast, has been in a very different posture, with the same period showing a roughly 66% retrace. The divergence has been so pronounced that Zcash briefly surpassed Cardano by market capitalization, pushing ZEC to become the 11th-largest cryptocurrency on May 10—an inflection point that has led at least one market expert to suggest ZEC could ultimately flip ADA in that key ranking. Why Zcash Is Catching Investors’ Eye Market expert Alex Carchidi highlighted several drivers in a new report, pointing to big accumulation as one of the most important themes. For example, Multicoin Capital disclosed in early May that it has been building a significant position in Zcash since February. That kind of accumulation is not limited to one firm. Cypherpunk Technologies has also accumulated an additional 295,000 Zcash tokens, representing about 1.7% of the coin’s circulating supply. Related Reading: Hyperliquid (HYPE) To $100? Expert Forecasts Major Rise Before Summer 2027 Carchidi noted that the network’s privacy usage appears to be rising in parallel with price. Approximately 30% of Zcash’s circulating supply is now held in shielded addresses. These addresses rely on specialized cryptography to encrypt transaction details, preserving user privacy—a capability that standard public blockchains don’t offer in the same way. Importantly, this share has nearly quadrupled over the past two years, a trend Carchidi says strongly suggests that adoption and usage are increasing alongside ZEC’s market momentum. Cardano Lacks Clear Path To Breakout At the same time, the expert argues the comparison with Cardano is different in almost every way besides market cap. Carchidi pointed out that Cardano is built as a smart-contract blockchain and is designed to compete in decentralized finance (DeFi), yet its traction has been comparatively limited. As of May 12, Cardano reportedly had only about $137 million in total value locked (TVL), placing it 26th among all blockchains. That figure also reflects a notable decline from roughly $410 million a year earlier. Carchidi’s view is that Cardano is in what he described as an “awkward valley.” He argues it is too slow and relatively expensive to compete effectively with high-speed, high-throughput chains such as Solana (SOL). At the same time, even though Cardano is cheaper than the blockchain it was originally created to beat—Ethereum (ETH)—it remains slightly slower and does not have nearly the same ecosystem scale. From this angle, the expert sees the market’s behavior as reflecting a widening gap in conviction narratives. According to Carchidi, institutional capital tends to favor stories that can stand up to scrutiny. He claims Zcash has such a narrative, while Cardano’s story has largely been “wait for better times” for the past several years—without enough clarity on how the better times will be delivered by what the developers are building right now. What Could Drive ADA Higher? Carchidi suggested that a potential approval for a spot Cardano exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the second half of 2026 might be the clearest near-term reason to hold. Even so, he doubts that investors would be eager to hold Cardano through an ETF if there is not a strong investment thesis supporting purchases at current levels. Related Reading: Coinbase CEO Unpacks The Crypto Bill’s Biggest Promise For The US Financial System Ultimately, Carchidi’s conclusion is direct. He argues that, given the lack of clear catalysts and the uncertainty around what would drive recovery, it may make sense to sell Cardano. Zcash, on the other hand, could be attractive if a portfolio needs exposure to privacy coins or scarce stores of value. At the time of writing, ZEC was trading at around $545, having recorded additional gains of 63% in just two weeks. During the same period, ADA recorded gains of 9%, trading at around $0.27. Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
Crypto analyst Ali Martinez said a long-tracked SuperTrend signal on Cardano’s daily chart has flipped bullish, months after the same tool marked the start of a steep decline. The call comes alongside fresh on-chain data from Santiment showing large ADA wallets now holding a record share of supply. Cardano SuperTrend Flips Bullish Martinez framed the latest signal as notable because of the indicator’s prior timing. In a post on X, the analyst said the SuperTrend had been his most reliable tool for tracking Cardano’s larger directional shifts, pointing to a sell signal from late September 2025 that preceded a 73% decline in ADA. Related Reading: Cardano Holds Critical $0.25 Support: History Points To A Major Rally Setup “The SuperTrend indicator has been my most accurate tool for anticipating Cardano’s long-term shifts. I’ve been tracking it closely since September 25, 2025, when it flashed a sell signal that perfectly timed the start of a 73% price decline. After months of this heavy correction, the indicator has just flipped.” The new signal does not amount to a guarantee of trend continuation, and Martinez attached specific levels to the setup. His first upside area is the $0.33 resistance zone, with a secondary target at $0.42 if momentum persists. The invalidation level, in his view, sits at $0.25. “To me, this suggests that the local exhaustion phase is over and a trend reversal is finally in play,” Martinez wrote. “I expect a surge toward the $0.33 resistance zone. If the momentum sustains, my secondary target is sitting at $0.42.” ADA Whale Holdings Hit Record High The technical signal is accompanied by a separate on-chain read from Santiment, which said Cardano’s largest wallet cohort has continued accumulating through the drawdown. According to the analytics firm, wallets holding at least 1 million ADA now control 25.09 billion tokens, representing 67.47% of the existing supply. Related Reading: ADA Deja Vu? Cardano Price Surged 200% Last Time It Was At This Support Level “Cardano’s key stakeholders have slowly but surely accumulated, consistently adding more and more of the existing supply to their bags, dating back to December, 2023,” Santiment wrote. “Although the asset has lost -71% of its market cap over the past 9 months, the ‘millionaire’ tier of sharks and whales appear to be content with adding more while prices are at a discount.” The Santiment chart shows that 25.09 billion ADA balance as an all-time high for wallets with at least 1 million tokens. It also said the 67.47% supply share is the highest since July 2020. For traders, that creates a familiar but important tension: concentration among larger holders can be read as conviction during a selloff, but it also makes future price action more sensitive to whether those wallets continue accumulating, pause, or distribute into strength. Together, the two signals give ADA a cleaner short-term setup than it has had for much of the correction. Martinez’s thesis depends on $0.25 holding as support, while the upside case requires the fresh SuperTrend buy signal to translate into sustained demand toward $0.33 and then $0.42. Santiment’s data adds a structural layer to that view, showing that large holders have been increasing exposure even as ADA’s market value contracted sharply. At press time, ADA traded at $0.2664. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
Crypto analyst Xanrox has advised market participants against buying Bitcoin, warning that a crash is looming for the leading crypto. Instead, the analyst advised buying altcoins, which are likely to offer greater gains. Analyst Advises Against Buying Bitcoin With Crash Looming In a TradingView analysis, Xanrox advised against buying Bitcoin, citing the crypto’s bearish price action. Commenting on BTC’s daily chart, he noted that the LOG scale shows a bearish flag pattern, indicating bearish price action. He added that it will be a technical error to buy or go long at the resistance of the channel. Related Reading: 9 Red Candles Before The Bottom: Why Bitcoin Price Will Continue To Crash Xanax further revealed that Bitcoin’s price is currently within the channel, indicating a huge selling wall above the current price. The analyst admitted there is still a chance BTC could rise to between $83,000 and $84,000. However, he advised opening a short position at this point rather than longing BTC. The analyst’s accompanying chart indicated that the recent Bitcoin rally was simply a bull trap, with BTC now at risk of dropping to around $60,000. BTC notably fell below $80,000 yesterday following the release of the U.S. PPI inflation data, which showed that inflation rose 6% year-over-year (YoY) in April due to the U.S.-Iran war. Meanwhile, Xanrox also noted that Bitcoin’s dominance is bearish, which is a strong sign of an altcoin season. He stated that the BTC price is currently looking to retest the main channel’s support trendline at around $60,000. Altcoins To Buy Xanrox listed ADA, TRX, LINK, DOGE, BNB, XLM, XRP, and ETH as altcoins to buy for those looking to trade with huge banks and institutions because they control the price of these coins. He reiterated that market participants should avoid Bitcoin as its dominance is falling and that it has already pumped from its February lows of around $60,000. Related Reading: Can An Altcoin Season Come Again? Why Bitcoin Price Can’t Fall Below $40,000 Meanwhile, the analyst stated that trading lower-cap coins will be better for those looking to make much more profit, as those coins have greater upside than the major altcoins, which he described as ‘bank’s coins.’ Some altcoins have recorded significant gains over the last month, with TON, SUI, and ONDO leading the way. TON is up almost 50% in the last month, rising to almost $3 as the Toncoin network’s fees dropped by 600%. The altcoin also recorded this surge as the Toncoin network now offers one of the most attractive yields among all layer-1 networks. Meanwhile, SUI and ONDO are up over 26% and 57%, respectively, on the back of bullish fundamentals in their respective ecosystems. At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is trading at around $79,600, down in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Featured image from Pixabay, chart from Tradingview.com
Cardano is testing a key long-term support at $0.25 once again, a level that has repeatedly sparked strong upside reversals in past cycles. With historical reactions from this zone leading to major rallies, the current reaction could mark the early stages of another structural move higher if support continues to hold. $0.25 Emerges As Cardano’s Most Critical Support Level According to analysis by Ali Charts, the $0.25 price point has emerged as the most critical support level for ADA. By examining the monthly chart, the analyst highlights that this specific price floor has historically functioned as a powerful launchpad for major market reversals. Whenever ADA tests this boundary, it tends to signal the end of a bearish phase and the beginning of a significant upward trend. Related Reading: Cardano (ADA) Price Now At A Critical Level Following Strong Whale Activity The historical evidence cited by Ali Charts begins with the price action in January 2023. During this period, Cardano successfully defended the $0.25 level, which triggered a robust 88.27% rally over the subsequent weeks, demonstrating the high density of buy orders and institutional interest concentrated at this psychological and technical floor. A second, even more dramatic confirmation occurred in September 2023. Ali Charts pointed out that the level held firm once again, providing the necessary liquidity for a massive 243% surge. At present, Ali Charts observes that Cardano is once again interacting with this pivotal $0.25 support. The analyst suggests that this current bounce could be the early stage of a major structural rally. As long as the price remains above this floor, the technical outlook remains bullish, with initial price targets set at $0.36 and a more ambitious macro target identified at $0.53. However, Ali Charts maintains that a failure to hold the $0.25 support would signal a fundamental regime change in the market. Bullish Bias Holds As Long As Green Box Support Remains Intact In a recent ADA market update, Yusuf|Noon stated that Cardano still appears to be leaning toward further upside as long as price continues to hold above the highlighted green box support area. At the same time, the analyst noted that several intermediate resistance levels could create short-term obstacles for the ongoing move higher. Related Reading: Cardano Whale Count Climbs To 4-Month High Amid Steady Accumulation Although ADA is currently pulling back to retest an important technical level, there is not yet a clean structure to justify entering the trade. Rather than chasing price action, the preference is to remain patient and wait for a stronger confirmation setup to develop. Yusuf|Noon also explained that a pullback into the thin green box region could provide a more attractive entry opportunity if the price reacts positively from that area. In addition, the lower green box is being monitored closely as a potential sniper entry zone in the event of a sudden or extreme market dump. Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from Tradingview.com
The Cardano price has been a poor indicator of the positive momentum injected into the cryptocurrency market over the past week. Despite most large-cap altcoins surging on the back of easing macroeconomic pressure, the ADA token has barely been able to stage a sustained rally above the $0.26 level. However, a popular analyst on the social media platform X has identified a pattern that suggests that the Cardano price could be at a bottom, potentially seeing a rebound to a new high over the coming months. This optimistic outlook projects the altcoin’s value growing up to 200% in a single move from its current point. Why The $0.24 Support Could Trigger A 200% Move For ADA In an April 17th post on the X platform, market pundit Ali Martinez shared an exciting outlook for the price of Cardano, saying it recently found support at a familiar level. According to the crypto analyst, this exact support level has served as a springboard for significant rallies for the ADA price in recent years. Related Reading: XRP Just Settled $291 Million On-Chain, Almost Nothing Hit Binance: Find Out What’s Happening Martinez identified the $0.249 level as a formidable support, leading to the formation of multiple bottoms and rebounds for the Cardano price in the past. As shown in the chart below, the price of ADA fell to this exact support earlier in March before returning to the price level again in April. Besides the apparent strength of this level, the $0.249 support has been the starting point of significant price rallies, with the most recent being 200% price surge. The Cardano price, after dropping to this demand zone around September 2023, soared by more than 200% to around $0.8 in the first quarter of 2024. Similarly, the Cardano price witnessed a rally of over 85% in early 2023 after falling to this support at $0.249. If history is anything to go by, the price action indicators are pointing to a potential rally between 80% – 200% for the ADA token over the coming month. ` In any case, investors need to watch out for the $0.249 support’s continued formidability, as a sustained breach below it could be potentially detrimental to the altcoin’s upward trajectory. Cardano Price Overview As of this writing, the price of ADA stands at around $0.2615, with a more than 2% jump in the past 24 hours. This positive single-day action in Cardano’s price reflects easing pressure on global financial markets, as Iran reportedly reopened the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, April 17. However, broadly speaking, the Cardano price performance has been muted relative to the rest of the cryptocurrency market over the past week. While Ethereum and XRP climbed nearly 10% on the weekly timeframe, the ADA token is barely up by 3% in the last seven days. Even while the general crypto market appears to have steadied in recent weeks, the Cardano price still seems to be struggling, with CoinGecko data showing that the altcoin is still down by more than 4% in the past month. Related Reading: Why Ethereum Has Become One Of The Most Heavily Shorted Assets Globally Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView
Cardano’s short sellers are taking a beating. Over the past 24 hours, over $500,000 worth of short positions were liquidated as ADA hovered near $0.25 — a price point that one unnamed trader is calling a powder keg ready to blow. Related Reading: XRP Faces No Immediate Quantum Threat As Only 0.03% Supply Seen At Risk: Analyst Whale Activity Signals Quiet Accumulation Exchange data tells a quiet story of confidence beneath the surface. More ADA has been flowing out of exchanges than flowing in, a pattern that often shows up when large holders are pulling coins into private wallets rather than preparing to sell. Whale accumulation has picked up as well. Reports indicate the number of wallets holding 10 million or more ADA recently climbed to a four-month high, even as the price continued sliding. The liquidation data reflects the same tension. Of the $637,500 in total ADA positions wiped out in the past day, shorts accounted for nearly 80% of the damage. Long positions absorbed the rest — about $135,200 — as buyers got caught on the wrong side of brief downward swings. BREAKING: CARDANO ( $ADA ) IS A TICKING TIME BOMB SAYS EXPERT TRADER ???????????? The target is 1.20$ end of this week. In his words “there’s nowhere left for it to go this week it will either go up or go down.” pic.twitter.com/Sg8yef818a — ????Mintern (@MinswapIntern) April 9, 2026 A Chart Four Years In The Making The technical case for a breakout rests on a structure that has been building since early 2022. Based on a chart shared by Minswap DEX’s self-described chief meme officer Mintern on X, ADA has been trading inside a horizontal price channel for roughly four years, bouncing between a ceiling and a floor without breaking decisively in either direction. ADA’s all-time high of $3.10 came in 2021. After that peak, the coin dropped sharply. By the week of January 17, 2022, it had fallen from $1.60 to below $0.91, before eventually settling near the top of the channel around $1.18. That range — from roughly $0.23 on the low end to $1.18 on the high end — has contained price action ever since. A descending trendline developed inside the channel starting around August 2025, when ADA peaked near $1.02 and then began forming a series of lower highs. Today, the price sits where that trendline meets the channel’s lower boundary — a compression point that typically forces a decisive move. Related Reading: Bitcoin ETF Hype Hits Ceiling, Sharp Drop Risk Emerges: Analyst The unnamed trader’s analysis calls for a breakout to the upside with a price target near $1.20 before the week ends. That would represent a roughly 380% gain from current levels in less than two days. A Bold Call From An Unknown Voice Still, the prediction carries real weight only if its source does — and that source remains unknown. The trader behind the “ticking time bomb” call was never identified in the analysis Mintern shared, which raises obvious questions about credibility, track record, and motive. A 380% rally in under 48 hours is an extraordinary claim. Extraordinary claims demand more than an anonymous chart. Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView
The Cardano community has officially approved the first tranche of the Orion Fund, a venture-style initiative designed to bridge Bitcoin liquidity into its decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. The governance vote unlocks 50 million ADA from the network's treasury, marking a pivotal shift in how Cardano funds its long-term economic expansion. The approval, which cleared required […]
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On-chain data shows the Cardano network has witnessed a surge in large wallets over the last couple of months, a sign that big-money hands have flowed in. Cardano Wallets With More Than 10 Million Tokens Have Grown In Count As highlighted by on-chain analytics firm Santiment in an X post, Cardano whales have hit a 4-month high count. The indicator of interest here is the “Supply Distribution,” which measures the total number of addresses that belong to a particular coin group. Related Reading: XRP 1-Year MVRV Falls To -41%, Lowest Since FTX Crash Investors are divided into these cohorts based on the number of tokens that they are carrying in their balance. The 1 to 10 coins group, for example, includes all addresses holding between 1 and 10 ADA. In the context of the current topic, the cohort of interest is the one with a lower limit of 10 million ADA and no upper limit. At the current exchange rate, its cutoff converts to $2.4 million, which is a sizeable amount. Thus, only the big-money holders will be able to qualify for it. Such investors are popularly known as the whales. Now, here is the chart shared by Santiment that shows the trend in the Supply Distribution of the Cardano whales over the last few months: As displayed in the above graph, the Cardano Supply Distribution for the 10 million+ ADA holders has risen recently, suggesting that new large traders have joined the network. Over the last nine weeks, the indicator has gone up by 5.2%, reaching a high of 424. This is the most number of whales on the ADA network since December 6th. Naturally, the larger presence of the whales can be bullish for the cryptocurrency. “Even though it has not decoupled from other altcoins yet in 2026, its market value is +11% since it bottomed out back on February 5th,” explained the analytics firm. Though, while whales have have been flowing into the network over the last couple of months, the Supply Distribution could still be to keep an eye on, as it often doesn’t take much for a quick reversal to occur. From the chart, it’s visible that the metric saw a sudden plunge back at the end of January, coinciding with the market crash. Related Reading: These 3 Signals Mark Bear Market Exits—Bitcoin Has Yet To Trigger Them Cardano isn’t the only altcoin that has witnessed movement from the whales recently. As pointed out by analyst Ali Martinez in an X post, Dogecoin whales participated in net buying of 500 million tokens last week. This accumulation came while the DOGE spot price was facing a classic squeeze from the Bollinger Bands. “When whales buy during a squeeze, they are usually positioning for the breakout,” noted Martinez. ADA Price At the time of writing, Cardano is floating around $0.24, down more than 4% in the last 24 hours. Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
The Cardano Foundation is becoming less dependent on ADA. Its latest report shows Bitcoin and cash now account for a much larger share of reserves after a year of sharp price divergence. That shift changes how closely the Foundation’s balance sheet tracks the performance of Cardano’s native token. In its 2025 Activity and Financial Insights […]
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A prominent crypto analyst is pointing to similarities between Cardano’s current market position and Bitcoin’s early years. Some see a struggling altcoin still far from its glory days, while others believe the current setup looks like the early stages of major breakouts seen in previous cycles. A crypto analyst known as Crypto Patel on the social media platform X is leaning heavily toward the latter, and according to him, a $10+ ADA price is only a matter of time. Analyst Constructs ADA Comparison To Bitcoin Crypto analyst Crypto Patel has compared the current Cardano setup to Bitcoin’s early days, arguing that the opportunity being presented now is one the industry has seen before. Related Reading: This Major Cardano Upgrade Could Change The Network’s Trajectory Posting on X, analyst Crypto Patel pointed to ADA’s recent commodity classification by US regulators and its position nearly 91% below its all-time high as evidence that crypto investors are mispricing a cryptocurrency that already cleared its most significant legal and price structure breakdown. Cardano is currently trading around $0.24, a level that, on a bi-weekly chart spanning back to 2019, is right above a macro bullish order block identified by CryptoPatel. The macro bullish order block is a demand zone between $0.13 and $0.18 that has historically attracted significant buying interest. The asset is down roughly 92% from its all-time high of $3.09, a figure that reads as catastrophic in isolation but which CryptoPatel frames as an opportunity. The situation resembles a period when Bitcoin traded at depressed levels while facing skepticism among investors in its early days. Interestingly, Cardano is in a much better position because it just got classified as a commodity. “That’s like buying Bitcoin when everyone called it a scam,” he wrote, “except this time the government already said it’s legit.” What The Chart Is Actually Saying The technical structure of CryptoPatel’s thesis is more layered than a single bullish callout. Technical analysis of the 2-week ADA/USDT chart on Binance shows the complete macro cycle and how the ADA price may be bottoming. Related Reading: Cardano Just Saw A Large Spike In DeFi Activity, Why Is Price Still Struggling Below $0.3? From its 2020 lows, the ADA price rallied 3,402% into the 2021 peak before entering a prolonged price correction. This prolonged correction led to the formation of a large descending triangle between 2022 and 2025, with a descending resistance trendline suppressing every recovery attempt. This led to a triangular price structure of lower highs and higher lows. When the price eventually broke down through the triangle’s lower support in 2025, that support flipped to resistance. The resistance level is between $0.45 and $0.50, and that range will need to be reclaimed for any meaningful recovery to take hold. CryptoPatel’s projected recovery path is staged: a reclaim of Resistance 1 at $1.20, followed by Resistance 2 at $2.95, before a full bull market extension toward $5.82 and ultimately $15.60. This final target represents a gain of about 12,471% from the cycle bottom. “$10+ ADA is not a question,” the analyst wrote. “It’s just a matter of time.” Featured image from Unsplash, chart from Tradingview.com
Cardano has been stuck below 30 cents for weeks, and its ranking among global cryptocurrencies has slipped to 12th place. Against that backdrop, a trader is now arguing the coin could still reach $2 — and sooner than most people think. Related Reading: Ethereum Sets User Record As Price Lags Far Behind Network Growth The Math Behind The Claim The argument comes from Yesreel, a crypto trader with six years of experience, who posted the projection on social media. Based on his analysis, ADA would only need to string together five to six days of 40–50% daily gains to close the gap between its current price and the $2 target. At roughly $0.25 right now, that gap works out to about 695%. The calculation itself holds up. Compounding works fast when daily percentage gains are that large. A 40% jump per day for six straight days gets ADA to $2. A 50% daily gain does the same in five. The math is real. Whether those gains can happen is a different question. $ADA can go to $2 faster than you think It only needs a few consecutive days with 40%-50% pumps???? It has happened before, it can happen again. — Yesreel (@Yesreel_) March 26, 2026 Yesreel says history gives reason to believe they can. Cardano hit an all-time high of $3.10 back in 2021, and it got there fast. Between August 2 and September 2 of that year, the token climbed from $1.32 to that peak — a gain of 134% in a single month. More recently, following the US presidential election in November 2024, ADA surged over 160% in just 15 days, jumping from around 32 cents on November 5 to 84 cents by November 20. Past Rallies Give Bulls Something To Point To Those two episodes are the backbone of the bullish case. Both showed that Cardano can move sharply and quickly when market conditions fall into place. Broad investor demand, a rising tide across the crypto market, and heavy capital inflows were the common thread in each case. The current picture looks different. Crypto markets have been weighed down by macroeconomic pressure and geopolitical tensions, and ADA has felt that drag more than most. The token has spent much of the past several weeks trading below 30 cents with little momentum to show for it. Related Reading: UK Slaps Sanctions On $20B Crypto Black Market Tied To Southeast Asia Scam Rings Current Conditions Still Pose A Challenge No sustained breakout has materialized yet, and investor confidence in a near-term recovery remains shaky. Bearish pressure has been steady, and ADA’s slide to 12th in global crypto rankings reflects how much ground it has lost relative to other assets. Yesreel has not offered a specific timeline or a trigger event that would kick off the kind of run he is describing. His projection rests on the idea that when the right conditions align — rising sentiment, strong inflows, momentum feeding on itself — ADA has shown it can compress months of gains into days. Whether those conditions arrive anytime soon is something no one can say with certainty. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
Cardano is attempting to turn the imminent mainnet launch of the Midnight network, a privacy-focused sidechain, into a repair job as market data signals extreme negative sentiment toward its native ADA token. Data from Santiment shows that the average wallet active on the Cardano network over the past year has earned a negative 43% return […]
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As Cardano (ADA) retests a key multi-year level that previously led to significant price increases, some analysts point to on-chain and derivative signals suggesting a potential price recovery for the altcoin. Related Reading: Ethereum Tops $2,100 As BitMine Ramps Up ETH Bet With $137M Purchase Cardano Retests Key Macro Support On Tuesday, Cardano dropped 3% to retest a crucial macro support level. The altcoin has been trading between $0.25-$0.30 since the early February market crash, failing to break out of the range’s upper boundary over the past two months. ADA’s price has retraced to the lower levels of its one-month accumulation zone, hovering between $0.25-$0.27 during recent market volatility. Market observer Ali Martinez pointed out that the cryptocurrency has been retesting a key multi-year level amid this performance. According to the post, Cardano is retesting the $0.25 area, a major support zone since 2022, in the weekly timeframe. This level marked the bottom of the previous bear market and served as a key area at the start of the latest bull run. As Martinez noted, the last two times ADA traded around and held this level, back in 2023, it bounced 85% and 200%. The first bounce led to a retest of the $0.46 area, while the second drove the price toward the $0.80 level between October 2023 and March 2024. The analyst also highlighted that ADA recently printed a buy signal, signaling a potential recovery soon. “The TD Sequential indicator has flashed a ‘black 9’ on the weekly chart, suggesting the recent downtrend has exhausted,” he wrote, adding that this setup typically anticipates one to four weeks of expansion. As a result, ADA could target $0.32-$0.37 by late April if it holds above its current price levels. “We’ve survived the 6-month grind; now we watch for a potential price recovery,” Martinez asserted. ADA Flashes Bottom Signals Adding to the momentum, analytics firm Santiment has underscored multiple on-chain and derivative signals that could indicate a reversal is nearby for Cardano. According to the post, Cardano’s average active wallets have experienced a 43% negative return on their investments over the past year, suggesting a price rebound is more likely than usual. Despite the 71% price decline since September, this extremely negative MVRV value generally indicates that ADA is in an “opportunity” or “buy” zone, Santiment affirmed, further explaining that when average returns are significantly negative, it signals an impending turnaround: On a zero-sum game, when average returns are severely negative, this is an indication of a looming turnaround with coins always averaging 0% on MVRV’s (average trading returns) across any timeframe. So when other traders are in severe pain, key stakeholders and professional traders are intrigued by this due to the lowered risk of buying or adding on to their positions. In addition, the firm stated that Cardano’s funding rate on Binance is experiencing the largest imbalance toward shorts since June 2023, suggesting traders are heavily inclined toward further downside. Related Reading: Bitcoin Holds $70K – Is The High‑Beta Era Over? “Traders are clearly expecting that the #12 market cap will continue to decline in value,” the firm pointed out, noting that “this historically is another bottom signal, as funding rates are always prone to liquidate and send prices in the direction that traders are expecting the least.” Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
Cardano may be flashing the kind of contrarian setup that traders tend to watch closely near exhausted selloffs. According to on-chain and derivatives data shared by Santiment, ADA’s 365-day MVRV has fallen to -43% while Binance funding shows the highest imbalance toward shorts since June 2023, a combination the analytics firm argues has historically aligned with bottoming conditions. Is The Cardano (ADA) Bottom Near? Santiment’s core thesis is that Cardano holders who have been active over the past year are now deeply underwater, which changes the risk-reward profile for new buyers. “Average wallets that have been active on the Cardano network over the past year are netting a return of -43% on their investments,” the firm wrote on X. “Memes aside about the altcoin’s major -71% price decline since September, this extreme negative MVRV value is generally an indicator of $ADA being in an ‘opportunity’ or ‘buy’ zone.” Related Reading: Cardano Chop Nearing End? Here’s The Key Resistance To Watch That argument rests on how Santiment interprets MVRV, or the gap between market value and realized value, across a 365-day window. In its framing, when the average participant is sitting on severe unrealized losses, downside risk begins to compress because weaker positioning has already been flushed out. The chart shared by the firm marks sub-zero MVRV territory as an “opportunity” zone and places ADA’s current reading well inside it. Santiment pushed that point further with a more explicit contrarian read. “In a zero-sum game, when average returns are severely negative, this is an indication of a looming turnaround with coins always averaging 0% on MVRV’s (average trading returns) across any timeframe. So when other traders are in severe pain, key stakeholders and professional traders are intrigued by this due to the lowered risk of buying or adding on to their positions.” That does not mean a rebound is guaranteed, but it does clarify the logic behind the call. The signal is less about immediate momentum and more about market structure: if most recent participants are already trapped at a loss, marginal selling pressure can start to weaken while value-focused buyers step in. Related Reading: Cardano Could Rocket 1,000% From Extended Accumulation Area, Analyst Says The second piece of the setup comes from the perpetual futures market. Santiment said Cardano’s funding rate on Binance is now showing the largest ratio of shorts to longs since June 2023, indicating that traders are leaning heavily toward further downside. In crowded positioning regimes, that can matter as much as the spot chart itself. “Cardano’s funding rate on Binance is seeing the largest ratio of shorts (compared to longs) since June, 2023,” Santiment wrote. “Traders are clearly expecting that the #12 market cap will continue to decline in value. This historically is another bottom signal, as funding rates are always prone to liquidate and send prices in the direction that traders are expecting the least.” That last point is the real crux of the analysis. Santiment is not simply saying ADA looks cheap after a 71% slide since September. It is arguing that Cardano now sits at the intersection of two classic reversal ingredients: deeply negative holder returns and an overcrowded bearish derivatives trade. At press time, ADA traded at $0.2666. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
Cardano may be sitting on one of the most significant buying opportunities in its history — with analysts projecting a potential 1,000% rally if a multi-year support zone continues to hold. Related Reading: Ripple’s $500M Raise And Institutional Ties Keep XRP Firmly In Place At roughly $0.27 at the time of writing, ADA has stayed above a demand floor that twice before marked a cycle bottom and launched sharp recoveries, fueling fresh optimism that a similar move could be building. Market analyst Crypto Patel, citing a two-week chart, says the coin is compressing between a price floor of $0.18 to $0.25 and a descending resistance line in place since the 2021 all-time high. That kind of squeeze often precedes a sharper move in either direction — and bulls are betting on up. The support band has attracted buyers more than once. Reports indicate the zone held during a steep decline in June 2023, when ADA hit $0.22, and buying pressure there helped push the coin to $1.32 by December 2024. Before that, a similar setup played out in 2021, when ADA consolidated just above that level before climbing to a peak of $3.10. $ADA Is Sitting on a Multi-Year Accumulation Zone That Could Send It 1,000%+ Higher…. Accumulation Zone: $0.25-$0.18 Targets: $1 ⮕ $3 ⮕ $10 NFA & ALWAYS DYOR@Cardano pic.twitter.com/pWG91sgtG6 — Crypto Patel (@CryptoPatel) March 18, 2026 The Numbers Behind The Targets If history repeats, the path higher looks like this: a break above the descending resistance line puts $1 in view first — roughly 270% above current prices. From there, $3 becomes the next target, a gain of around 1,011% that aligns closely with the 2021 cycle peak. Under the most optimistic scenario, Crypto Patel puts $5 on the table — a rise of about 1,750%. Those numbers are staggered and conditional. Each target only comes into play after the previous one is cleared. None of them are triggered by the support zone alone — the descending resistance line, which has capped every recovery attempt since 2021, must also give way. ADA dropped to $0.2205 in February before buyers stepped back in. Since then, the coin has held mostly flat but has not broken below the support floor. According to the analyst, that matters. A sustained hold keeps the broader structure intact. A drop below $0.18 dismantles it. Related Reading: XRP Moves Into ‘Scarce Zone’ As Exchange Supply Dries Up A Long Wait For A Breakout The current price action has been sideways for months. ADA is neither breaking out nor collapsing — just grinding within a narrow range while the two converging lines press closer together. Reports note that extended consolidation of this kind often precedes a larger directional move, though the chart alone cannot determine which way that move goes. The analyst’s projections are rooted in technical chart reading and historical cycle comparisons. No fundamental catalysts — new technology, partnerships, or adoption milestones — were cited as drivers in the analysis. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
Hyperliquid’s HYPE token moved into the top 10 crypto assets by market capitalization, beating Cardano's ADA amid a 1,700-fold rise in trading volume tied to oil volatility during the US-Iran conflict. Notably, Bitcoin benefited significantly from the broader bid for crypto during the conflict, but HYPE gained a second channel as traders used Hyperliquid's platform […]
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A cryptocurrency analyst has explained how the upper boundary of a Parallel Channel could set up a bullish breakout for Cardano (ADA). Cardano Could Face Key Resistance At $0.304 In a new post on X, analyst Ali Martinez has shared a technical analysis (TA) pattern forming in the 4-hour Cardano price chart. The pattern in question is a Parallel Channel, which forms whenever an asset observes consolidation between two parallel trendlines. Related Reading: Dogecoin Surges 6% As Whales Scoop Up 470 Million DOGE The upper level of the channel tends to be a source of resistance for the price, meaning tops can be likely to occur at it. Similarly, the lower level can act as a point of support, facilitating bottom formations. The asset breaking out of either of these bounds can suggest a continuation of the trend in that direction; a surge above the channel can be bullish, while a fall under it can be bearish. There can be a few different types of Parallel Channels depending on how the trendlines are oriented with respect to the graph axes. Channels that are sloped upward are known as Ascending Channels, while those pointing down are called Descending Channels. In the context of the current topic, the third and simplest type is of interest: a Parallel Channel that’s parallel to the time-axis. This type corresponds to a period of true sideways movement in the cryptocurrency’s price. Now, here is the chart shared by Martinez that shows the Parallel Channel potentially forming in the 4-hour price of Cardano over the past few weeks: As displayed in the above graph, Cardano retested the lower level of this Parallel Channel earlier in the month and found support at it. The coin has since seen a rebound and has been making its way up the channel. During the last couple of days, the digital asset sector as a whole has witnessed a bullish impulse and ADA hasn’t been left out as its price has flown up to levels near $0.290. This surge has furthered the cryptocurrency’s journey inside the channel, taking it about 75% of the way to the upper level. “45 days of sideways chop is nearing an end,” noted the analyst. “The key resistance is $0.304, which is the upper boundary of this channel.” As mentioned earlier, a break above a Parallel Channel can lead to a sustained bullish move. Based on this, Martinez has highlighted target levels for the asset. Related Reading: Bitcoin Fear & Greed Surges As Price Touches $74,000, But Extreme Fear Persists From the chart, it’s visible that these levels lie at $0.338 and $0.376, corresponding to half-width and full-width distances above the channel, respectively. It now remains to be seen whether the latest rally will take Cardano to the $0.304 resistance and if a breakout will take place. ADA Price At the time of writing, Cardano is floating around $0.288, up more than 8% over the last seven days. Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
DeFi activity on the Cardano (ADA) network is showing strong momentum, with Total Value Locked (TVL) spiking by more than 23%. Despite increased on-chain activity, ADA continues to trade below $0.3, with lackluster performance, price swings, and persistent sell-offs over the past months. Cardano Sees DeFi Growth As ADA Price Dwindles Cardano’s decentralized finance ecosystem is experiencing a notable surge in activity, even as the ADA price remains depressed. As of March 13, 2026, the token sat at around $0.27, down more than 90% decline from its all-time highs, creating a striking disconnect between network growth and price performance. Related Reading: Cardano Red Month Is Far From Over: Analyst Predicts Crash To This Target Notably, Dave, a stake pool operator (SPO) and delegated representative (DRep) for the Cardano blockchain, took to X to highlight the scale of the network’s recent DeFi expansion. He pointed out that despite the recent price weakness, Cardano’s TVL climbed 23.5% in just 12 days, rising from $447.13 million on February 26 to $552.35 million by March 13. This reflects roughly $105 million in additional capital flowing into Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem. The data show that this increase came from inflows measured directly in ADA rather than in US dollars. Data from DeFiLlama, which tracks TVL in US dollars, shows that Cardano’s DeFi total value stood at about $127 million on February 26 before rising to approximately $142.27 million in the following days, reflecting a more modest gain. Additional insight from another Cardano DRep, Dori, on X reveals that the ratio of stablecoin supply to DeFi TVL on Cardano expanded sharply over the past several months. Dori reported that the recent integration of USDCx on Cardano has already produced a significant shift in the network’s stablecoin landscape. He noted that the stablecoin-to-DeFi TVL ratio jumped from around 10% last June to 32% at the time of his post, roughly tripling in under a year. He linked part of this increase in the ratio to the decline in the ADA price. Because most of the network’s DeFi value is held in ADA, the continued drop in its market price reduced Cardano’s TVL when measured in US dollars. Still, Dori has emphasized that the integration of USDCx is a major step in the growth of DeFi on Cardano. He noted that with minting volume rising steadily, Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem is expected to diversify and mature organically. Analyst Projects ADA Rebound Despite Falling Channel On the technical side, crypto analyst ZAYK Charts on X has revealed that ADA is currently trading inside a falling channel, underscoring an extended downtrend movement since 2025. Looking at the chart, the cryptocurrency has continued to trend lower since September last year, crashing from above $1 to $0.27 as of writing. Related Reading: Can ADA Price Still Surge? Cardano Founder Says The Best Is Yet To Come Despite the poor performance, ZAYK Charts maintains an optimistic outlook for the altcoin. He predicts that if ADA breaks out of its resistance near $0.28 at the channel’s upper trendline, its price could surge more than 108% to $0.55. Featured image from Freepik, chart from Tradingview.com
Cardano is facing a fresh round of criticism after renowned crypto market analyst Ali Martinez, known on X as Ali Charts, argued that the network’s valuation remains badly out of step with actual usage. His thesis is blunt: unless adoption improves materially, ADA’s price could face far more downside if a key support level breaks. In a post titled “The Most Useless Network in the Crypto Market,” Martinez framed Cardano as a chain with a large market value but comparatively weak onchain traction. He wrote, “Cardano ranks among the largest cryptocurrencies by market value, yet the level of real activity on the network remains relatively small.” Could Cardano Fall Another 80%? He then tied that directly to DeFi participation, arguing that “the amount of capital locked in Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem has never exceeded $1 billion, and it has historically been only a fraction of what is locked on competing platforms like Ethereum. Even some newer chains, such as SUI, have already surpassed it in usage.” Related Reading: Cardano Red Month Is Far From Over: Analyst Predicts Crash To This Target That gap between valuation and network activity sits at the center of his bearish case. Martinez argued that when “a network is valued in the billions but only a limited amount of capital and applications are actually using it, the price may be driven more by speculation than by real demand.” In his view, Cardano has yet to establish the kind of durable product-market fit that tends to sustain long-term capital inflows in crypto. He sharpened that comparison by placing Cardano alongside two ecosystems that, in his telling, already carved out clearer roles in the market. “Unlike Ethereum, which has built a dominant position in DeFi, or Solana, which has captured high-speed consumer applications, Cardano still lacks a clear use case that consistently attracts users, developers, and investors,” he wrote. The point was not simply that Cardano is smaller than those chains, but that it still has not locked in a sector where it is the default destination for activity. Related Reading: Cardano Sharks & Whales Quietly Accumulate 819M ADA Amid Price Decline Martinez also pointed to Cardano’s development model as a structural constraint. “Another concern for me is the pace of development and the increasingly competitive environment,” he said. “Cardano follows a research-driven model that prioritizes academic review and formal verification. While that approach can improve security and design quality, it has also resulted in a slower rollout of features compared to other blockchains.” That slower cadence, he suggested, has had compounding effects. “Although Cardano launched in 2017, smart contracts were not introduced until 2021, giving competing ecosystems several years to build stronger network effects with more developers, applications, and liquidity.” In crypto, where network effects can become self-reinforcing, arriving late to key product layers can matter as much as technical design. The market implication of that thesis comes down to one chart level. Martinez said $0.245 is the critical support to watch. If that floor breaks decisively, he sees scope for a move to $0.112 or even $0.051, which would imply another 50% to 80% decline from that zone. He stopped short of calling the breakdown a certainty, noting that it “has not yet occurred,” but said traders waiting on the sidelines could still see a short setup if the level fails, provided risk is tightly managed. At press time, ADA traded at $0.2668. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
Like other altcoins in the space, the Cardano price has suffered a tremendous amount of losses over the last few months. This relentless sell-off has pushed the ADA price so low that it is now sitting at levels not seen since the last bear market. Even now, Cardano remains in danger of further decline, as explained by crypto analyst Lingrid in a recent analysis. Why Cardano Could Crash Further The major problem being faced by the Cardano price now is that the bulls have failed a number of times to reclaim control from the bears. With each failure, the hold by the bears becomes stronger, furthering the possibility of a bearish continuation. Related Reading: Bitcoin Bear Market Could Be Shrinking, But Are We Watching History Repeating Itself? In the analysis, crypto analyst Lingrid revealed that Cardano remains below the consolidation support at $0.26. As a result of this, the cryptocurrency has now started moving below its former structure. At the same time, the price is also below the descending resistance, showing a lot of weakness. Despite the recent recovery, the fact that the altcoin’s price eventually moved back downward proved that bears are still in control of the market. The downside of this is that the bearish continuation is likely from here, especially as the price has also been rejected at $0.26, and the price could crash further. The only way this move gets invalidated is if the Cardano price were to successfully reclaim and break above $0.27 again. 6 Months Of Red With the red close of the month of February, Cardano marked five consecutive months of red closes, making it the third time in history that this has happened, according to data from CryptoRank. The first time was back in 2021-2022, when the bear market had begun, and then again, that year, Cardano recorded another five consecutive months of red closes. Related Reading: Pundit Says XRP Price Could Reach $1,000 By End Of 2026 If This Happens While the last time ended with a major surge in the sixth month, the Cardano price is already down by more than 11% in the month of March, suggesting that the red trend could continue. Now, back in 2021-2022, was the first time in history that the digital asset saw 6 red monthly candles, and what followed was interesting. After the sixth month of red in February 2022, the Cardano price had begun to surge, eventually ending the next month with gains of 18%. However, after this, the bleed continued, and Cardano fell further. Now, if this trend were to repeat itself, then the cryptocurrency could see a relief bounce after the sixth month of red. But this would not mean an end to the decline, but rather, a precursor to more decline. Featured image from Dall.E, chart from TradingView.com
CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives marketplace, is expanding its footprint in crypto with the launch of new futures contracts tied to Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), and Stellar (XLM). In a blog post published Monday, the exchange confirmed that the crypto contracts went live on February 9, marking another step in the steady buildout of its regulated cryptocurrency product suite. New Futures And Index Launch Plan With the addition of ADA, LINK and XLM, CME now offers futures products covering seven major crypto assets. According to the company’s own estimates, the expanded lineup represents exposure to more than 75% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization. Related Reading: Bitcoin And Ethereum Prices Are Recovering Again, But Will The US-Israel War Derail It? The new crypto contracts are cash-settled and reference the CME CF Reference Rates. Each token is available in both standard and micro-sized contracts, allowing for participation from a broad range of institutional and smaller market participants. The first LINK and XLM futures trades were executed between FalconX and Marex, while the inaugural ADA transactions took place between Cumberland DRW and Wintermute. In addition to the new token-specific contracts, CME revealed plans to roll out a Nasdaq CME Crypto Index futures product, targeted for launch on March 16, pending regulatory approval. Crypto Derivatives Hit Record Volumes In 2025 In its blog post, the company also highlighted the rapid growth of its crypto derivatives business. In 2025, CME recorded a milestone year for its digital asset product suite, reporting an average daily volume of 278,300 contracts. Related Reading: Wall Street Giant JPMorgan Sees Clarity Act Driving Second-Half Upside That figure translates to roughly $12 billion in notional value traded each day. Growth has also been reflected in rising average daily open interest, underscoring sustained institutional engagement since the product line’s inception. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
Cardano (ADA) jumped over 12% in a single day, breaking above short-term resistance and drawing renewed attention from both whales and institutional funds. The surge coincides with steady accumulation by whales and mechanical buying from index-tracking products, signaling a potential shift after months of consolidation. Related Reading: XRP Rally Incoming? Analyst Forecasts March-April Recovery If This Level Breaks The combination of rising trading activity, renewed interest in derivatives, and steady accumulation by major holders has brought Cardano back onto traders’ radars. While questions remain about long-term network activity, recent price behavior suggests that market participants are ready for significant long-term moves. ADA's price trends to the downside on the daily chart. Source: ADAUSD on Tradingview Institutional Allocation and Whale Accumulation Support Cardano’s Momentum On-chain data shows that large Cardano holders, commonly referred to as sharks and whales, have accumulated roughly 819 million ADA over the past six months. This buying occurred even as prices declined significantly, indicating that influential investors viewed lower levels as an opportunity to build positions. Institutional exposure has also increased. Asset manager Grayscale raised Cardano’s weighting within its Smart Contract Platform Select Capped Index fund to above 20%, making ADA the product’s third-largest holding. Although the adjustments are driven partly by index-tracking mechanics, the rising allocation highlights Cardano’s continued relevance among major smart-contract platforms. This accumulation trend contrasts with retail sentiment during the downturn and suggests longer-term conviction despite ongoing competition from rival blockchain ecosystems. Analysts often interpret sustained buying during price weakness as a signal that larger investors are positioning ahead of future catalysts. Technical Breakout Fuels ADA’s Price Surge ADA recorded a 12% daily gain, rising from roughly $0.26 to above $0.29, as trading volume surged to nearly 4 times its average level. The move followed a breakout above key short-term technical levels after weeks of consolidation. Momentum indicators show a recovery phase underway. The RSI remains below overbought territory, leaving room for further upside, while trend strength readings indicate a developing directional move. Rising futures open interest, which expanded by nearly 30% in a single day, suggests fresh capital entering the market rather than short covering alone. Key levels now sit near $0.31 as immediate support, while resistance appears around $0.34 and the 50-day moving average. A sustained hold above these zones could reinforce bullish momentum, whereas rejection may trigger consolidation. Ecosystem Developments Add Fundamental Narrative Beyond price action, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson recently emphasized that the network remains competitive, citing the upcoming Midnight privacy project as evidence of continued development. The initiative has already attracted early partnerships and aims to expand enterprise and regulatory-compliant use cases. Still, mixed fundamentals persist. While derivatives activity and investor accumulation are rising, decentralized finance participation and total value locked on the network remain below previous highs, reflecting uneven ecosystem growth. Related Reading: Bitcoin Price Surges 8% — Key Drivers Behind The Recovery Toward $70,000 For now, Cardano’s rally represents a notable alignment between institutional positioning and technical momentum. Whether ADA can sustain gains above current resistance levels will likely depend on continued capital inflows and broader crypto market sentiment in the weeks ahead. Cover image from ChatGPT, ADAUSD chart on Tradingview
On-chain data shows the Cardano sharks and whales have quietly been accumulating the asset even as the price has gone through a drawdown. Cardano Sharks & Whales Have Increased Supply Share By 1.6% In a new post on X, on-chain analytics firm Santiment has talked about the latest trend in the supply of the Cardano sharks and whales. The indicator of interest here is the “Supply Distribution,” which tells us about the amount of the ADA circulating supply that’s held by a given wallet group. Related Reading: Bitcoin Yet To See Meaningful Capital Return, Glassnode Says Addresses or investors are divided into these cohorts based on the number of tokens that they are carrying in their balance. The 1 to 10 coins cohort, for instance, includes the wallets owning between 1 and 10 ADA. In the context of the current topic, the range of interest is the 100,000 to 100 million coins one. At the current exchange rate, its lower end converts to $30,400 and upper one to $30.4 million. Given the scale involved, the range would cover some of the key investors of the market holding a notable amount. Holders of this kind are popularly called the sharks and whales. Moves from these traders can sometimes have an effect on the market, so they can be worth keeping an eye on. If nothing else, the behavior of these groups can be revealing about the sentiment among the influential entities. Now, here is the chart shared by Santiment that shows the trend in the Supply Distribution of the Cardano sharks and whales over the last few months: As displayed in the above graph, the Cardano sharks and whales have seen their Supply Distribution rise over the last few months, indicating that the large investors have been accumulating. More specifically, the sharks and whales have added 819.4 million tokens (currently worth $248 million) to their wallets over the last six months. This has taken their supply share of the cryptocurrency from 66.84% to 68.44%. Interestingly, while the sharks and whales have expanded their supply during this window, the asset’s price has witnessed a significant drawdown instead. The timing could suggest that the key investors have been looking at the price decline as an opportunity to enter at lower levels. Related Reading: Bitcoin Nears Death Cross That Preceded Final Bear Market Legs From the chart, it’s visible that the accumulation trend has become particularly steep this month. It now remains to be seen whether this buying will pay off for the Cardano sharks and whales or if the asset will go lower still. ADA Price Cardano has observed a strong surge of 14% during the last 24 hours that has taken its price to $0.30. Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
This year has been a tough ride for Cardano (ADA) investors, as weakening retail participation collides with renewed development activity and aggressive accumulation by large holders. Related Reading: Bitcoin Capitulation Or Buy Zone? What On-Chain Data Shows Right Now While on-chain data points to growing long-term conviction, market sentiment around ADA remains fragile, leaving the asset caught between technical pressure and ecosystem expansion efforts. Cardano sits at #11 trading near $0.28 after a sharp correction from January highs above $0.44. The price structure reflects broader cooling across the market, with declining derivatives activity and cautious trader positioning reinforcing analysts’ description of a “survival mode” environment for the token. ADA's price trends to the downside on the daily chart. Source: ADAUSD on Tradingview Market Fatigue Weighs on Cardano (ADA) Price Momentum Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson recently warned that the crypto market could face another 90 to 180 days of slow conditions, citing retail exhaustion following years of market shocks, including exchange failures, regulatory uncertainty, and repeated speculative cycles. Derivatives data support this cautious outlook. Open interest in ADA futures has dropped to roughly $447 million, alongside declining trading volumes, signaling reduced conviction among traders. Funding rates have also turned negative, suggesting bearish sentiment is building in leveraged markets. Technically, ADA is testing key support levels. The token continues to defend an ascending trendline formed after February’s lows near $0.22, while resistance remains clustered around the $0.29–$0.30 region. Analysts note that repeated tests of support increase the risk of breakdown, potentially exposing downside targets near $0.25 if selling pressure intensifies. Despite the weakness, higher-low formations and stabilization above short-term moving averages leave room for recovery should broader market sentiment improve. Whales Step In as Retail Interest Declines While retail demand fades, large holders appear to be taking the opposite approach. On-chain data shows wallets holding between 10 million and 100 million ADA accumulated more than 220 million tokens, valued at over $61 million, during the recent price dip. The Mean Coin Age metric has reached a three-month high, indicating long-term holders are largely refraining from selling. Historically, this combination of whale accumulation and reduced token movement can tighten circulating supply and help establish price floors during downturns. Some analysts argue that February’s lows could represent a longer-term entry zone if market conditions stabilize, though they caution that historical rebounds do not guarantee future performance. DeFi Expansion Plans Aim to Shift Narrative Beyond price action, Cardano is advancing with ecosystem upgrades to strengthen its decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. The network plans to launch USDCx, a USDC-backed stablecoin intended to address liquidity shortages that have limited DeFi growth on the chain. In parallel, Cardano is integrating the LayerZero interoperability protocol, enabling connections to more than 140 blockchain networks, including Ethereum and Solana. The move is expected to expand cross-chain liquidity access and attract developers seeking broader user bases. Related Reading: Ethereum Staking Reaches Historic Levels, Price Hovers Near $2K Development activity remains high, with hundreds of repository updates focused on wallet improvements, cross-chain communication, and network infrastructure. However, market reaction has so far remained muted, suggesting investors are waiting for measurable adoption rather than announcements alone. Cover image from ChatGPT, ADAUSD chart on Tradingview
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson says the crypto market is headed for “90–180 days” of more grind, not because the industry lacks catalysts, but because retail is exhausted and the narrative that kept people engaged has stopped working. Speaking with CoinDesk at Consensus 2026 in Hong Kong, the Input Output CEO framed the current drawdown as a morale problem as much as a market one. “This one particularly stings because we expected a really strong cycle in 2025 and we didn’t quite get it,” he said. “So, a lot of people are pretty bitter about it… We just got to get through the next 90-180 days. It’s going to be tough.” Cardano Founder On What Went Wrong For Crypto Hoskinson’s core point was that crypto has spent years promising a near-term “magic fix,” then watching the market fail to respond even when those fixes arrived. He rattled off the sequence retail has lived through: NFT mania, the collapse of Luna, collapse of FTX, the “scary Gary era,” memecoin mania, and “all the Trump stuff” and argued that each cycle offered the same story: endure the pain now, because something big is coming in 6–12 months. “And we got all the mcguffins,” he said. “We got BlackRock coming in. We got the US government doing the reserve thing. We got good regulation with Genius to start… all the things that we were looking for happened and then nothing happened afterwards.” Related Reading: Cardano May Be At A Prime Buying Point, Analyst Says To explain the mood, Hoskinson leaned on a vivid travel metaphor: “We got to the town and the hotel was closed, the restaurants closed and we’re like where do we sleep and eat? … people are deeply frustrated.” That frustration, in his telling, has turned into a broader disengagement. Retail isn’t shocked by volatility, it’s bored and worn down by the repeated promise that the next institutional wave, the next regulatory milestone, or the next narrative pivot will make the market “work” again. Hoskinson also cast the next phase of adoption as politically contentious inside crypto itself. As more traditional finance players get involved, he warned of a future where the industry becomes “federated”, dominated by large corporate-controlled networks and where users are pushed away from self-custody. “What they want to do long term is move everybody into a custodial holder from a non-custodial holder and then ban DeFi and non-custodial wallets so they can consolidate the entire industry to like 10 or 15 of big actors,” he said, adding that it’s feeding apathy among long-time participants. He put it more bluntly a moment later: “We didn’t sign up to have Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan and BlackRock and these other guys run the industry. We signed up to build a new banking system that is pushing power to the edges.” If the industry drifts back into the hands of the institutions crypto originally positioned itself against, Hoskinson argued, the last decade of risk-taking starts to look like a round trip. How To Make Crypto Great Again Hoskinson’s proposed reset centers on making crypto usable for people who aren’t primarily there to trade. That starts with “wallet abstraction”, reducing onboarding to something like “30 seconds with a fingerprint and a pin code,” plus social recovery and then integrating those wallets into mainstream platforms so the default experience becomes non-financial. Related Reading: Cardano Nears End Of 2020-Style Correction: Is $5 To $10 Next? “Right now, I have to understand… private keys, understand how to back up wallets, all this stuff,” he said. “So, really, the only interface is for people that are doing this for financial reasons.” From there, he argued, crypto should stop “over financializing everything,” pointing to the volume of token launches as a symptom. “Anytime I hear anything, I always ask, ‘When’s the token launch?’ And I’m sorry, 11 million tokens went out last year. It’s not sustainable,” he said. He tied that thesis to what he sees as the next wave of demand: agentic AI. By 2030, Hoskinson predicted, “the majority of internet searches in commerce will be agentic,” meaning bots transact more than humans and crypto, via stablecoins and standards he referenced such as x402 becomes the rails that give those agents “economic agency.” Hoskinson also dismissed the idea that quantum fears are driving today’s downturn. “If there are, they’re stupid,” he said of anyone selling Bitcoin due to quantum risk, calling the threat “not… right now.” He pointed instead to DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), saying the effort is working toward measuring whether quantum computers will be meaningful “by 2033,” and argued the real issue is trade-offs: post-quantum cryptography is “5 to 10 times less efficient,” and few networks want to pay that cost today. Still, he framed the looming transition as an opportunity, especially for Bitcoin, which he said may need a hard fork to fully address post-quantum migration. For Cardano, he argued, on-chain governance makes such changes a more bounded process: “It’s a six-month conversation for us.” At press time, Cardano traded at $0.2638. Featured image from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com