Cardano’s largest investors are steadily increasing their ADA holdings despite continued weakness in the token’s price and growing pessimism among retail traders, according to the latest on chain data from Santiment.
The analytics platform found that wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA now collectively control more than 25.6 billion ADA, the highest level recorded since February 2023.
In contrast, smaller wallets holding fewer than 100 ADA have trimmed their positions by roughly 0.7% over the past four months, highlighting a widening gap between institutional sized investors and retail participants.
Large Investors Continue Accumulating
Santiment said the accumulation trend comes at a time when Cardano is facing persistent fear, uncertainty, and doubt across the market.
ADA has struggled throughout 2026, with its price failing to meet investor expectations. A recent attempt to recover toward $0.20 quickly lost momentum, sending the token back to around $0.15, where it has fallen more than 11% over the past week.
Despite the bearish price action, whales have continued adding to their positions.
Santiment attributed part of the confidence among large holders to ongoing development within the Cardano ecosystem, including progress on the Leios testnet, continued upgrades to the Hydra scaling solution, advancements in Mithril, integration of Pyth Network oracles, and new ecosystem funding initiatives.
According to the firm, the combination of whale accumulation, declining retail participation, and weak market sentiment represents one of Cardano’s healthiest market structures so far this year, even if it does not necessarily point to an immediate price recovery.
Cardano Faces a Difficult Year
Cardano has encountered several challenges throughout 2026 despite continued technical progress.
Earlier this month, EMURGO announced it was stepping down from the Cardano Pentad, the network’s governance body, to focus on supporting users affected by the SecondFi exploit. The move sparked concern within parts of the community, with some members speculating that the organization may have faced financial strain following the incident.
The ecosystem has also experienced other setbacks this year. Analytics platform Tap Tools ceased operations, while the planned Cardano Summit Singapore 2026 was canceled.
Adding to the uncertainty, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson previously warned that a wave of failures could impact decentralized finance projects built on the network.
Despite those challenges, development has continued behind the scenes, with the Cardano ecosystem pressing ahead on infrastructure upgrades that supporters believe could strengthen the network over the longer term.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic
