Cardano's price slipped below $0.25 this week, but the selling pressure is coming almost entirely from retail investors. The top 1% of ADA holders are doing the opposite — stacking coins at the low, according to crypto analyst Cheeky Crypto. On-chain data shows total value locked on the network has jumped 42% since last September, and decentralized exchange volume rose nearly 40% in the past seven days.
Whales buy the dip
Cheeky Crypto claims the largest Cardano holders are front-running the market. The reason, they say, is a 'shift in institutional infrastructure' — specifically, faster Oracle latency that lets big players react before retail. Whether that's the whole story or not, the accumulation pattern is clear: wallets in the top 1% are adding ADA aggressively while smaller addresses dump into the price decline.
TVL climbs despite price pressure
Cardano's total value locked hit 542.71 million ADA as of this week, up from 382.16 million ADA on September 18, 2025 — a 42% increase. In just the last 24 hours, TVL rose another 1.14%. The jump suggests DeFi activity on Cardano is expanding even as the token's spot price struggles. DEX volume over the past week topped $10.26 million, a 39.58% surge that points to real usage, not just hype.
Transaction count at all-time high
The network isn't idle either. Cardano's mainnet processed 121 million transactions, a new record. That milestone comes alongside the TVL and DEX growth, painting a picture of a blockchain that's getting busier even when the price chart looks ugly. It's the kind of divergence that usually gets noticed — eventually.
Who's right this time?
The gap between whale accumulation and retail capitulation is wide. One side sees an overreaction; the other sees a falling knife. The coming weeks will show whether the infrastructure upgrades Cheeky Crypto cites actually deliver the kind of volume that lifts ADA off the sub-$0.25 floor. For now, the data says one thing the price says another — and the market hasn't picked a winner yet.
