Why is Cardano price down today?

Cardano’s (ADA) price continued its downtrend on March 31, down 4.5% over the last 24 hours to trade at $0.6529.

The altcoin is down 10% over the last seven days and 45% from the March 2 high of $1.19.

ADA/USD daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Several factors are behind Cardano’s underperformance, including:

Weakening onchain Cardano activity

The bearishness in ADA price today is preceded by reduced network activity and the total value locked (TVL), which has dropped sharply over the last month.

Cardano’s daily active addresses fell by over 70% from 70,700 on March 2 to less than 20,000 on March 31.

Similarly, daily transactions decreased by more than 71% over the same period.

DAAs and daily transactions on Cardano. Source: Artemis

Cardano’s TVL has plummeted from $529.8 million on March. 3, to reach $317.9 million on March 31.

This metric has again dropped by 13% over the last five days.

Cardano total value locked, USD. Source: DefiLlama

ADA futures data shows bearishness

Another factor hampering ADA’s price is the lack of enthusiasm in its derivatives market, evidenced by low open interest and weighted funding rates.

Key takeaways:

ADA funding rates have been stuck below zero over the last four weeks.

Negative funding rates mean shorts are paying counterparties to keep their bearish bets open, reflecting the dominance of bearish short positions in the market.

ADA funding rates. Source: Glassnode

Similarly, cumulative open interest (OI) in perpetual futures across major exchanges has been stuck below $1.0 billion since March 4.

This is way below the $1.50 billion peak reached on Jan. 18.

ADA open interest. Source: CoinGlass

Historically, assets with declining open interest struggle to maintain upward momentum, as there’s less capital and enthusiasm to drive prices higher.

For ADA, this could mean that even minor selling pressure could trigger a cascade of liquidations, especially if leveraged positions are unwound, driving prices lower.

ADA price risks more losses without renewed interest from institutional or retail traders.