Cardano's Price Bounce: Smart Money or Retail Exhaustion?

Cardano's price has seen a notable bounce after its June 23 low, but it's unclear whether this is a genuine sign of recovery or just a brief respite before another downturn. The ADA price added 14,783 new non-empty wallets in the days following its bottom, according to on-chain firm Santiment, and then surged by roughly 24% in a week, reaching $0.199 on July 5 before settling near $0.181.

The ADA price still sits about 87% below its cycle peak of $1.20, and the recent pop hasn't answered the key question: was June's crash genuine capitulation that established a durable floor, or just a temporary rest stop?

According to Santiment, the wallets that grew during the fall belong to large money holders, not the general public. The 10 million to 100 million ADA cohort raised its share of circulating supply from 37.66% to 38.13% in late June, with large-output transactions spiking on June 21 and 24.

The wallet surge is a genuine sentiment inflection point, not routine account creation, according to Santiment's analysis.