Cardano Whale Buying Fails to Halt Slide as Market Sentiment Remains Cautious

Cardano (ADA-USD) continues to struggle as it hovers around $0.21, down over 7% this week. Despite large holders accumulating roughly 160 million tokens since Sunday, market demand remains low and sentiment across the cryptocurrency market is cautious.

The buying spree by whales has not translated into a reversal of the short-term downtrend. Bitcoin slipped toward $78,000 after briefly touching $80,000, while major altcoins such as Ethereum, Solana, and XRP pulled back in tandem.

Derivatives data is mixed, with ADA's long-to-short ratio falling to 0.74, indicating that more traders are short than long. However, the open interest-weighted funding rate flipped positive at 0.0013%, suggesting that long holders are paying short sellers to maintain their positions.

Futures activity has cooled, with open interest in ADA futures falling nearly 2% to $494.17 million. Long liquidations reached $983,670, dwarfing the $103,370 in short liquidations, indicating that bullish investors absorbed the bulk of the losses during the latest price decline.