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Large players are taking Cardano (ADA) supply off the market at volumes the network has not seen in the past 3.5 years. While retail investors are dumping their coins en masse, disappointed by the depressed price trend of 2026, wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA have accumulated more than 25.6 billion tokens.
On-chain data from Santiment shows that this move has returned “shark” and “whale” holdings to levels last seen in February 2023. Over the past four months alone, they have increased their positions by 1.8%.
This liquidity shift is taking place while the ADA chart looks deeply uncomfortable. The token recently traded near multi-year lows, while the relentless flow of negative sentiment and falling prices has finally exhausted retail investors’ patience.
The local panic forced smaller addresses holding up to 100 ADA to reduce their positions by 0.7% over the same four-month period. This is a classic signal: large investors are using extreme retail pessimism to secure circulating supply at the steepest possible discount.
3 under-the-surface catalysts driving Cardano’s bull case
Despite the difficult price picture, Cardano still has active catalysts developing beneath the surface. Developers continue the network’s planned scaling effort and in late June, the key Leios testnet, Musashi Dojo, launched with the goal of increasing transaction throughput several times over.
At the same time, progress continues on the Hydra and Mithril protocols, Pyth oracles are being integrated, and fresh ecosystem funding activity is also being recorded.
The bullish case is simple: strong hands are absorbing supply, retail investors are losing patience, and market sentiment has been completely burned out. This combination does not guarantee an immediate price reversal, but large-scale whale accumulation amid the capitulation of smaller holders creates one of the healthiest technical setups ADA has shown this year.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
