Cardano is testing resistance near $0.45 after recovering from a November network disruption and completing the Midnight token launch.
ADA traded around $0.43 on Monday, marking support above the $0.40 level that held during recent volatility.
The privacy-focused blockchain faces a critical technical juncture as it works to regain momentum following major ecosystem developments.
What Happened
Cardano experienced a brief chain split on November 21 when a malformed delegation transaction exploited a three-year-old software bug.
The network diverged into two competing chains for approximately 14 hours before developers deployed emergency patches in node versions 10.5.2 and 10.5.3.
Block production continued throughout the incident, though exchanges temporarily halted ADA deposits and withdrawals as a precaution.
The disruption pushed ADA down toward $0.38 before the network stabilized.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson characterized the event as a targeted attack, though the individual who claimed responsibility described it as a personal experiment using AI-generated code.
Days later, Cardano's core organizations launched the NIGHT token for the Midnight privacy sidechain on December 8.
The mainnet deployment is scheduled for Q1 2026, with the network targeting 5,000 transactions per second using the Jolteon consensus protocol.
Governance participants approved a 70 million ADA treasury allocation on November 28 in the fastest vote in network history.
The $30 million budget will fund stablecoin integration, institutional custody, cross-chain bridges, oracle services, and analytics platforms.
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Why It Matters
The convergence of network recovery, Midnight launch, and treasury approval represents Cardano's most coordinated ecosystem action in years.
The November chain split exposed vulnerabilities in validation consistency across node versions, highlighting infrastructure gaps that the new treasury allocation aims to address.
Cardano's DeFi total value locked remains near $185 million, significantly below competing Layer 1 networks despite years of development.
The technical setup shows ADA trading below key moving averages with resistance clustering between $0.45 and $0.47.
A sustained break above this level could open the path toward $0.50, while failure to hold $0.40 support risks a retest of the $0.35 zone.
The Midnight sidechain aims to bring privacy features and institutional-grade compliance to the ecosystem through zero-knowledge technology.
Analysts project the infrastructure improvements could strengthen Cardano's position in real-world asset tokenization and DeFi applications throughout 2026.
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