Cardano (ADA) Claims Top Spot in Crypto Development Activity

The Cardano (ADA) price wobbled below $0.24 on September 25, precariously holding on to its 7th place in the crypto top 10 rankings. Will the recent spike in developer activity help Cardano reclaim market share and propel the ADA price out of its current downtrend?

At $0.24, Cardano’s price is now down 47% from its 2023 peak of $0.45 recorded in April. In response, the team’s developers and key contributors have intensified BUIDLing activity across the ecosystem to claw back market share. Will it be enough to regain strategic whale investors’ confidence amid the emergence of fresh layer-2 (L2) networks?

Cardano Team BUIDLing Resounding Response to Competition

Cardano (ADA) price has taken a hit in H2 2023, grappling with regulatory squabbles and stiff competition from layer-2 networks such as Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism. While each of these L2 networks raced to record highs in daily throughput and user adoption rates, Cardano appears to have stagnated.

In attempts to reclaim its “Ethereum killer” spot, on-chain data compiled by Santiment shows that developer activity on the Cardano network has increased considerably recently.

As depicted in the chart below, the Cardano Development Activity score has increased from 454 to 559 between July 19 and September 24.

Cardano Leads In Crypto Developer Activity | Developer Activity Score Sept 2023. Source: Santiment

While developer activity increased since July 20, ADA price dropped by 25% from $0.32 to $0.24. This sends strong signals that the team has not thrown in the towel despite the underwhelming price performance.

Instead, the Cardano development team has spent the better part of H2 2023 building projects and enhancing existing features to take advantage of the next bull rally.

Cardano Now Leads Crypto Development Activity

After spending over two months in intense BUIDLing mode, Cardano has claimed the top spot globally in crypto dev activity. The snapshot below depicts the top 5 projects in building mode.

As illustrated, Cardano ranks number 1, ahead of Polkadot (DOT) and Kusama (KSM) in the top 3. Meanwhile, Chainlink (LINK) and Hedera (HBAR) are ramping up activity to keep up with demand for Real World Assets (RWA) and Micropayments, respectively.

Cardano Leads In Crypto Development Activity | Global Crypto Developer Activity Rankings Sept 2023. Source: Santiment

Development activity evaluates how much attention, resources, and expertise are currently devoted to improving the network. When a blockchain network ships new features and expands capabilities during a price downtrend, it reinforces investor confidence in its long-term viability.

Since the start of 2023, some prominent fresh projects launched by the Cardano team include Hydra Pay and the native Djed stablecoin.

Notably, historical data shows that ADA price trends have not often been closely correlated to swings in development activity. However, the vital smart contract developers have contributed to the blistering 250% growth in Cardano’s total value locked (TVL) in 2023.

ADA Price Prediction: The Next Bull Rally Could Reclaim $0.35

Cardano price action has been underwhelming in 2023 so far. Nevertheless, the growth in developer activity and TVL suggests that the ecosystem will likely maintain a steady user base and network demand to propel ADA toward $0.35 during the next bull rally.

The Global In/Out of Money Around Price (GIOM) data, which depicts the purchase price distribution of current Cardano holders, also validates this bullish thesis. It shows that if the ADA price scales the initial resistance at $0.29, the bulls could ride the wave toward $0.35.

As shown below, 419,920 addresses had bought 6.42 billion ADA coins at the maximum price of $0.30. If they sell early, they could pose a major obstacle.

But if the Cardano ships new products and features as the developer activity spikes predict, the bull rally could head toward $0.35.

Cardano (ADA) Price Prediction | GIOM data | Source: IntoTheBlock

Conversely, the bears could seize control if the ADA price drops below $0.20. However, as shown below, 158,770 addresses had bought 1.49 billion ADA coins at the maximum price of $0.24. Being the last major line of defense, they will likely make frantic efforts to avert a bearish downswing.

But if the Cardano price fails to hold steady at that vital support level, it could drop below $0.20.