Cardano’s price has been slow to recover since its 2017 drop despite major strides made in the launch of the Shelley era. However, its on-chain metrics tell a story of an active community that has high hopes for the future of Cardano and its native cryptocurrency ADA.

Cardano’s latest success barely moves ADA

While most of the media coverage Cardano has gotten in the past couple of years focused on its slow development process, the ambitious blockchain project has seen an eventful few months that are bound to propel it to new heights.

The Shelley era of its roadmap, which will bring about staking, will see its incentivized testnet launch in the following days. IOHK, the company behind Cardano, had a successful balance check before the official network snapshot, with its CEO Charles Hoskinson saying several major bugs and issues were resolved in the meantime.

Several pilot projects are currently in the works and the company launched a partnership with New Balance, successfully implementing its blockchain solution to reduce counterfeiting.

And while all of this only strengthened the community’s confidence in the project and its charismatic leader, Cardano’s price barely reacted to any of the major developments in the company. The price of its native cryptocurrency ADA, which is down more than 96 percent from its ATH, has been stagnant for months.

According to data from IntoTheBlock, there has been a steady number of transactions larger than $100,000 in the past three months. Aside from a few short-lived peaks, the number remained more or less stagnant throughout the year as well.

Number of transactions with a value of $100,000 or greater in the past year. (Source: IntoTheBlock)

A slow-growing, but loyal network

Since its creation in 2017, Cardano managed to attract a large and active community. That very community, while failing to grow at a rapid pace, has been slowly and steadily increasing throughout the year. Data has shown that during 2019, the ratio of new addresses entering the network vs the addresses leaving the network has been positive.

While a quarter of all Cardano addresses have a zero balance, 49 percent have made a transaction in the past 24 hours.

Addresses that have made a transaction in the past 24 hours. (Source: IntoTheBlock)

According to IntoTheBlock’s Ownership Indicator, ADA is surprisingly concentrated. There are currently 42 addresses that hold around 40 percent of ADA’s circulating supply. Out of those 42 addresses, though, only 3 are actively trading.

Addresses that own between 0.1 and 1 percent of the circulating supply rated by activity. (Source: IntoTheBlock)

Despite metrics indicating a bearish market, such a large number of hodlers shows that confidence in the network is still strong among its whales.

And it’s not just the whales that seem to be standing by Cardano. Around 87 percent of ADA holders are at a loss, having bought the coin at a price higher than its current value.

Addresses in and out of the money. (Source: IntoTheBlock)

However, with half of them holding onto their ADA for longer than a year and around 41 percent owning it longer than 1 month, it seems that the Cardano community is here to stay.