Large Cardano holders have accumulated 25.6 billion coins amid the withdrawal of retail investors
7/15/2026, 01:20 PM • Евгения Слив

According to data from the analytics platform Santiment, large holders of the Cardano cryptocurrency, owning between one hundred thousand and one hundred million ADA coins, have accumulated more than twenty-five point six billion tokens. This represents the highest cumulative volume since February 2023. Over the past four months, these so-called "whales" have increased their assets by one point eight percent, while addresses holding less than one hundred ADA reduced their balances by zero point seven percent during the same period. This accumulation occurs against the backdrop of a declining coin price: over the past month, ADA has dropped by nine point five percent, falling to zero point one six three dollars, with a market capitalization of five point nine billion dollars. This is ninety-four percent below the all-time high of three point one dollars reached five years ago. Prolonged price stagnation has likely eroded the confidence of retail investors, who have begun to cut their positions, while large players are actively absorbing the released liquidity.
Such behavior by major holders significantly reduces the volume of liquid ADA supply available for trading on exchanges; however, analysts warn that this alone does not guarantee a swift recovery in the coin's price. Despite the cautious market sentiment, the fundamental development of the Cardano ecosystem continues at full speed. Developers recently launched the Musashi Dojo testnet as part of the major Ouroboros Leios consensus protocol upgrade. This update is designed to drastically increase network throughput and improve overall performance through more efficient and parallel block processing. In parallel, active work is underway on the Hydra scaling protocol and the Mithril cryptographic protocol, while the ecosystem itself continues to expand through the integration of reliable Pyth Network oracles, attracting new developers and projects.
Against the backdrop of this positive fundamental news, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson decided to personally intervene in the information space to refute circulating rumors that he had significantly reduced his personal ADA holdings. The businessman categorically stated that he has not sold a single coin of his crypto project since 2017, maintaining faith in its long-term potential even during periods of deep market declines. His words find indirect confirmation in on-chain data, which demonstrates the resilience of large wallets to price pressure. Thus, the current situation in the Cardano market represents a classic example of asset redistribution: retail investors, tired of sideways movement, are transferring their coins to patient large holders and developers who are betting on a future technological breakthrough and the overall recovery of the digital asset industry.
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The material has been prepared solely for informational purposes and does not constitute financial advice or recommendation.
