Accumulation by large investors has been detected on the Cardano (ADA) network. The number of whale addresses holding at least 10 million ADA rose to 424, the highest in about four months.

On April 7, blockchain outlet The Crypto Basic, citing data from on-chain analytics firm Santiment, reported that large wallets are leaning toward buying, or accumulation, despite a recent bear market.

Santiment said on X, formerly Twitter, that the number of addresses holding at least 10 million ADA rose to 424, a four-month high. It marked the first time since December 2025.

ADA is trading around $0.243 and has been in a broadly declining trend for the past four months. Even so, the scale of whale buying is not small. Santiment estimates it takes about $3.5 million on average to secure 10 million ADA. The outlet interpreted this as a move that may reflect confidence in price potential rather than short-term trading.

In fact, the number of wallets holding at least 10 million ADA has risen about 5.2 percent over the past nine weeks. The count increased to 424 from about 402 in late January. Santiment assessed this as a signal that whales are shifting from distribution to accumulation.

Price action remains weak, but some rebound has been observed. CoinMarketCap data show ADA is down about 26.7 percent so far in 2026. Market capitalisation has risen more than 11 percent since the Feb. 6 low, and the price has climbed about 10.4 percent to $0.243 from $0.22. The $0.313 level posted on Feb. 25 is about 42 percent above that low.

On-chain indicators also pointed to rising activity. According to TapTools, a data account focused on Cardano, about 4 billion ADA was traded on the network over the past five days, with on-chain trading volume exceeding $1 billion. The outlet said the expansion in trading volume runs counter to the "ghost chain" controversy around Cardano, adding that users are continuing real value transfers by taking advantage of low fees and fast processing speeds.

Cardano's number of wallets holding at least 10M $ADA tokens has ballooned to a 4-month high of 424, a +5.2% rise in 9 weeks. Even though it has not decoupled from other altcoins yet in 2026, its market value is +11% since it bottomed out back on February 5th. pic.twitter.com/5HgvwadvsQ