After a sluggish start to 2025, Cardano’s price appeared to be gaining bullish momentum from the prior year. However, the altcoin has faced a notable decline, experiencing a drop of approximately 15% over the last week.

This recent downturn may stem from the uncertainties and turmoil surrounding Donald Trump’s inauguration, but it could also be influenced by the actions of major investors in the past week. Let’s examine how the Cardano whales have sold off their holdings recently.

Whales Offload $180 Million in ADA Tokens Last Week

In a recent update on the X platform, renowned cryptocurrency analyst Ali Martinez reported on the volume of Cardano tokens that whales shed over the past week. This information is derived from changes in wallet balances held by individuals with between 100 million and 1 billion tokens.

It’s essential to note that wallets with such high token holdings are classified as whales. These entities are crucial players in the market as other participants often monitor their trading behaviors.

Given their considerable stakes, crypto whales generally have a profound impact on market movements. Historically, asset prices tend to align with the activities of these large investors (prices increase during periods of whale accumulation and decrease during sell-offs).

According to Martinez, these Cardano whales have reduced their holdings, offloading over 180 million ADA tokens in the past week. This sell-off amounts to roughly $185 million at the current market rates.

While pinpointing the exact motives behind this whale activity is challenging, it’s common for these large investors to lock in profits, particularly following a price surge. For context, Cardano’s price rose nearly 30% from $0.90 to a peak of $1.15 between January 13 and January 17.

Moreover, significant sell-offs by whales could signal a shift in overall investor sentiment, especially if they anticipate a potential price drop. They may opt to cash in early to mitigate possible losses.

Ultimately, when whales reduce their holdings, it often sends negative signals for the asset (in this case, Cardano), as it increases the available supply on the market. An excess supply without adequate demand to absorb these sell-offs could put downward pressure on ADA’s price.

Current Cardano Price Overview

At the time of writing, the ADA token is priced at about $0.97, showing a decrease of over 1% in the last 24 hours. As per CoinGecko data, this altcoin has dropped around 15% over the past week.