Cardano spent $15m on adoption: Will ADA price go up?

The Cardano Foundation has spent $15 million on efforts to boost network usage, but ADA’s price has yet to pick up.

Efforts to boost Cardano’s (ADA) price have yet to bring consistent returns. On Thursday, June 10, the Cardano Foundation released a report detailing its spending in 2024. According to the report, the Foundation spent $15 million on adoption, which includes flashy deals like the one with Barcelona FC.

The report details that total expenditures for 2024 were $29.2 million. Of this, $22.1 million was allocated to expanding in strategic areas, including adoption, core operations, and education. Another $7.1 million was dedicated to sustaining these core areas, including legal, finance, and network infrastructure.

The funds came from the Cardano Foundation’s assets, which stood at $659.1 million at the end of 2024. The majority of these funds, or 76.7%, were in ADA, 14.9% were in Bitcoin (BTC), and 8.3% were in cash and other assets. According to Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, the goal is to ensure that these funds are used effectively.

“The focus is on maintaining a sustainable balance between costs and income while maximizing impact for the broader ecosystem,” Frederik Gregaard, Cardano Foundation stated.

Despite this spending, Cardano’s price performance has been lackluster this year. After a major rally in November, when ADA reached its yearly high of $1.32, the price has been on a sustained downtrend. Currently, Cardano’s price is down 50% from its highs in December of last year.

Moreover, Cardano has failed to generate sustained user and developer engagement. Notably, Cardano has just 49 developers and a $348 million total value locked. In comparison, Solana has 232 dApps and TVL of over $20 billion. Additionally, many of these Cardano-based dApps have very little user activity.

Cardano’s price will likely only sustainably go up once its ecosystem attracts more developers and more user activity.