Cardano [ADA] remained among the weaker-performing crypto tokens in the market, having lost substantial ground from its historical peak. At press time, ADA traded around $0.16, down from an all-time high near $3.10.

The token fell 2.14% over the previous 24 hours, while trading volume dropped 23% to $177.3 million. However, price action was only one part of the broader picture, as on-chain data also offered limited support for ADA’s recovery case.

Cardano transaction activity remains subdued

ADA’s on-chain activity pointed to continued weakness in transaction flow across the Cardano network.

The blockchain recorded about 21,700 transactions over the past day, well below a recent peak of roughly 57,000. The same pattern has appeared across recent trading activity and much of this year, with Daily Transaction Count largely hovering between 11,000 and 20,000.

That range remains subdued for a network with Cardano’s profile. Transaction count is closely watched because it reflects how often users are moving assets, interacting with applications, or otherwise using the chain beyond simply holding ADA. At the same time, Active Addresses increased to around 13,860, creating a divergence between user presence and actual transaction activity.

The data suggested that a larger pool of users was still producing only limited on-chain usage. More broadly, Active Addresses have mostly remained between 10,000 and 20,000. Low address activity, combined with a weak Transaction Count, continued to weigh on assessments of the chain’s utility.

Whale activity points to net ADA selling

Exchange data showed a similar pattern, as elevated participation from larger investors did not change the bearish setup described by the metrics.

Spot Average Order Size data indicated that large whales dominated ADA trading on centralized exchanges. Whales are investors who control enough liquidity to influence an asset’s market performance.

When measured against Spot Market Netflow, that whale dominance corresponded with net selling of ADA over the past two weeks.

According to CoinGlass, ADA’s Spot Netflow for the week stood at roughly $1.41 million, compared with about $143.43 million in Exchange Inflows.

The trend extended across several weeks. For the week beginning July 13, ADA recorded approximately $167.39 million in inflows and a netflow of $1.82 million, consistent with continued net selling.

Sustained selling from this group kept ADA exposed to pressure. The main offset was that buyers kept netflow within a limited range.

Treasury plan raises spending allocation to 500 million ADA

For now, ADA’s constructive case rests largely on Cardano’s development plan for the blockchain.

The plan increases the treasury spending allocation from 350 million ADA to 500 million ADA, giving the network additional room to fund core infrastructure development. Treasury spending matters because it can support developer tooling, network upgrades, and ecosystem projects, but those allocations are typically judged by whether they translate into sustained application activity and user demand.

The impact of that increase depends on whether it leads to higher on-chain activity, brings in more active addresses, and attracts more protocols to build on Cardano.

DeFiLlama data shows that 62 protocols currently operate on the chain, a low figure for a network that has been active for years. Those protocols hold a combined total value locked, or TVL, of $61.7 million. TVL remains one of the clearer gauges of DeFi liquidity on a chain, so Cardano’s relatively small protocol base and liquidity pool leave the treasury plan with a measurable adoption gap to address.

Cardano’s Active Addresses have risen while transactions have fallen sharply, creating a split between user presence and network usage. The increase in treasury allocation to 500 million ADA gives Cardano more resources for development, but the network still needs stronger demand and activity for those funds to translate into broader ecosystem growth.