Cardano (ADA) Whales Have Returned in Force, Scooping Up Over 400 Million ADA Tokens

After a period of relative quiet, Cardano (ADA) whales have returned in force, scooping up over 410 million ADA tokens in April 2025, according to a tweet by popular crypto analyst Ali Martinez.

After a brief period of inactivity, Cardano (ADA) whales have returned with a vengeance, accumulating over 410 million ADA tokens in April, according to a new analysis by Ali Martinez.

The last time we saw such large-scale accumulation was in December 2024, when ADA…

— Ali Martinez (@ali_marti_nez) May 1, 2025

Notably, while ADA's price has remained under $0.70, whale accumulation at this scale suggests strategic positioning for what could be a major breakout. A conviction that is also being echoed by others in the space.

According to Chris from the popular YouTube channel "Chris Does Crypto", the timing of this accumulation is what stands out, as the purchases came despite ADA failing to break key resistance levels and even slipping in market cap rankings.

"Whales don't gamble small," Chris stated, "They're strategic. When they move like this, it usually signals something brewing under the surface."

That said, while price action has remained subdued, Cardano's bullish narrative seems mostly grounded in its strong fundamentals. At the heart of this optimism is the upcoming Leios upgrade, a highly anticipated milestone that aims to deliver transaction speeds exceeding Solana's while preserving Cardano's core principle of decentralization.

Unlike Solana, which has suffered multiple outages due to its resource-heavy architecture and concentrated validator set, Cardano stands out with a flawless seven-year uptime record. This uninterrupted performance underscores the network's architectural resilience and long-term reliability, key attributes that continue to attract strategic investors.

Beyond speed, Cardano is also entering what Charles Hoskinson has recently called the "fourth generation of crypto", with privacy at the core. The upcoming Midnight airdrop, expected to onboard millions of users through cross-chain integration, aims to introduce privacy-preserving tokens like Knight and Dust. These innovations not only widen Cardano's use case but also position it as a platform for next-generation decentralized finance (DeFi).

Meanwhile, institutional adoption and ETF speculation are adding more fuel to the bullish narrative. According to popular predictions platform Polymarket, the odds of a Cardano ETF approval in 2025 have risen to 70%. Given the massive inflows that spot ETFs brought to Bitcoin and Ethereum, a similar approval for ADA could open the floodgates to institutional capital.

Adding to the momentum is speculation of a strategic partnership between Ripple and Cardano, after Ripple teased a major infrastructure announcement featuring Cardano's logo. If confirmed, this alliance could facilitate a shared ecosystem for real-world asset tokenization, estimated to be valued at up to $19 trillion by 2033.

Perhaps most groundbreaking is Cardano's planned integration with Bitcoin, enabling smart contract functionality for BTC via Cardano's UTXO-compatible architecture. Through features like Babel fees, users will be able to transact on the Bitcoin network while paying fees in ADA.

At press time, ADA was trading at $0.6908 reflecting a 1.58% drop in the past 24 hours.