• Cardano (ADA) surged by 5% in 24 hours to increase its market cap by $1 billion to $15.6 billion, and with its weekly gains now at 19%, it’s been one of the best performers in that time.
• However, analysts are still observing the crypto, with some concerned that the rise of cryptos like Cardano and Polkadot always signals an impending bear market.

While it’s one of the world’s largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, Cardano (ADA) isn’t known for its price surges. However, in the past week, it’s been one of the star performers. At 18.83% in gains over the past seven days, it was the second-best performing crypto in the top 20 after Avalanche and in the past day, it has added over a billion to its market cap.

ADA trades at $0.4434 at press time, gaining 3.33% in the past day. Its market cap stands at $15.67, making it the eighth-largest cryptocurrency in the market, just ahead of Dogecoin at $13 billion. In the past 36 hours, it has added $1.6 billion to its market capitalization.

One of the most remarkable metrics during that time was the surge in transaction volume for ADA. In the past 24 hours, the volume skyrocketed by 27% to hit $764 million, indicating demand by traders. This was higher than Chainlink, Polygon, Shiba Inu and Litecoin.

This surge in volume is supported by an influx of whales and institutional investors. In December, the number of “large transactions” averaged above 7,000, having averaged around 5,000 in most of November. According to one analyst, “This surge points to growing interest in ADA from institutional players and whales, which is usually a precursor to price spikes.”

But despite the rise in ADA price, some analysts urge caution. They claim that some peripheral tokens like ADA and Polkadot’s DOT usually jump into the bull market wave late, and as such, a rise in their market prices usually signals that a bear market is coming to an end. On its part, Polkadot gained 16.8% in the past week.

Despite the pessimism, ADA continues to win. As CNF reported recently, profitable ADA addresses hit the highest levels since 2021’s bull market.

Cardano’s Growth Sets Stage for ADA Implosion

For most coins, a rise in the price is merely out of traders’ speculation. However, for Cardano, the ADA price is supported by robust development by Charles Hoskinson and his IOG team as well as by the support of a passionate community globally.

The continued improvements in the protocol have given investors great confidence in Cardano’s future, and this is reflected in the continued rise in the total value locked on the Cardano network. As data from DeFiLlama shows, the TVL has been on an uptrend this entire year, with slight dips in June and September. Currently, over $300 million worth of ADA is locked on Cardano.

Still, some analysts are not fully convinced by ADA. Lady of Crypto tells her 45,000 YouTube subscribers that Cardano’s structure leads to slow and systematic updates that take several months to implement, unlike some other networks which move at a rapid pace.

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