Cardano’s market cap jumped by $693 million last week, climbing to around $6.7 billion and outperforming other top-100 cryptocurrencies. The ADA price surged 11.52%, rising from $0.1646 on July 27 to roughly $0.1836 by August 3, 2026. At its peak, the price hit near $0.192, closing the weekly candle near a resistance level that held for two months.
The driving force behind this rally was significant demand from large holders whales managing wallets with 100 million to 1 billion ADA. These whales acquired more than 240 million ADA tokens, valued at over $44 million during the week. They now control 39.18% of Cardano’s circulating supply, holding over 14.3 billion ADA in total, which amplified upward pressure on the altcoin’s price.
This buying frenzy coincided with the network’s recent upgrade, known as the Van Rossem hard fork, implemented on July 18. It marked Cardano’s first fully on-chain-governed hard fork and brought meaningful improvements, including reduced smart-contract execution costs and new Plutus functions. The update also advanced the project into the Voltaire governance phase, boosting investor confidence in Cardano’s long-term roadmap.
Other top performers last week were Monero, Uniswap, and Binance Coin, gaining 4.04%, 3.86%, and 2.05% respectively, but none matched Cardano’s growth. In the past 24 hours, ADA’s price slipped 1.44% amid $545 million in trading volume, reflecting typical short-term volatility after a strong rally.
