Cardano price falls to record low as project labeled a ghost chain

The price of Cardano’s ADA token dropped to $0.1608, its lowest level since 2021, after sliding from a peak of $3.08 in September 2021. The decline erased roughly $85 billion of market capitalization, shrinking the token’s value from a record $91 billion to about $5.8 billion today.

DeFi activity on the platform has also collapsed, with total value locked falling from $700 million to $90 million and annual revenues reported at merely $355 thousand. Analysts now describe Cardano as a “ghost chain” due to limited developer engagement and user adoption, especially as competing blockchains such as Solana and Ethereum continue to attract more activity. Recent upgrades, including the privacy‑focused Midnight project and the Leios parallel‑processing update, have yet to revive interest. Technical analysis shows the token broke a key support level at $0.23, fell below its 50‑week exponential moving average, and may target $0.10 if the downtrend persists.