Cardano whales’ activity increased substantially this week, is ADA poised to hit $1?

• Cardano whale activity hints at a push for a bullish run to $1.
• The network’s on-chain transfer volume surpasses Dogecoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin.

With Cardano’s Vasil hard fork getting closer, whales and sharks purchased about $138 million worth of ADA this week. Also, data shows that the total number of wallets holding ADA tokens is now more than 3.5 million. The ADA price keeps rising despite the postponement of the Vasil hard fork, which was previously scheduled for July.

After the latest postponement, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said there would be no further delay of the hard fork. Last week, IOG’s technical manager (Kevin Hammond) explained that the postponement was to perform additional tests and ensure a smooth rollout process. The whale activities and the buzz within the Cardano community have helped the native token price to remain around the $0.50 range.

Related: Cardano founder gives explanation behind delays of the Vasil Hardfork

A recent Santiment data shows a rising whale and sharks’ activity in the last seven days as seen on the Cardano supply distribution metric. These two groups have been responsible for 0.46 percent of Cardano’s current supply between last Wednesday and now. Even if this accumulation seems small, it might result in a rally that pushes ADA price to $1 if it continues till this month ends.

The accumulations come after a mid-June dump after ADA price hit a local price top. Cardano promised that the Vasil hard fork would focus on scalability, stability, security, and rigor. There would also be better throughput on the Cardano blockchain with the development of decentralized apps and smart contracts.

🐳🦈 #Cardano shark & whale addresses have accumulated a combined ~$138M in $ADA in 8 days after the mid-June dump around the local price top. This is only a mild accumulation for now, but could get interesting if this trend continues throughout August. https://t.co/7ix8VPSkZG pic.twitter.com/uPfuLfbbkl

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) August 5, 2022

The upcoming Vasil hard fork has created renewed optimism regarding the Cardano network. The number of wallets holding Cardano’s native token surged by one million this year alone. Hence, the total number of wallets holding ADA is now more than 3.5 million. This feat is remarkable given the current crypto market conditions. Moreover, more than 3,000 smart contracts have now been deployed on the Cardano blockchain, a first in its history.

Cardano’s on-chain transfer volume increases substantially

A recent report by Kraken intelligence stated a 16 percent rise in daily on-chain transfer volume on the Cardano network. Thus, ADA performed better than Algorand, Dogecoin, Bitcoin, and Ethereum. It is worth noting that dogecoin’s transfer volume dipped by 54 percent last month.

The year-to-date data of Cardano’s daily activity shows a 238 percent increase. According to the report, the cause of Cardano’s substantial growth is the launch of various applications like Pavia (a metaverse gaming application) and Sundaeswap (a decentralized exchange). Analysts predict that the ADA price might hit $1 if this massive rally pushes it above the $0.55 resistance level.

During the week, the first digital asset bank, Sygnum bank, announced support for Cardano staking. The bank’s clients can use its institutional-grade platform to stake ADA and earn staking rewards. Also, a popular member of the Cardano community (ADA whale on Twitter) recently claimed that Cardano would expand massively if Voltaire’s decentralized governance works as predicted.