Cardano’s native token ADA experienced significant losses during the cryptocurrency market downturn on April 10. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView indicated that ADA's price fell to an intraday low of $0.558, marking a 3% decline over the last 24 hours. This downturn highlighted the challenges facing ADA in maintaining its market position amid broader market volatility.

Several factors contributed to ADA's price decline. Weak on-chain metrics were a significant underlying issue. According to Token Terminal, there was a notable decrease in ADA's trading volume and the number of core developers involved with the project. Specifically, the number of unique GitHub users making multiple commits to Cardano's public repository dropped from a three-month high of 146 developers on March 6 to 122 on April 10, a 16.5% decline. Additionally, transaction volumes plummeted by 80.7%, from approximately $2.189 billion to $421 million during the same period.

Further data from DefiLlama showed that the total value locked (TVL) on the Cardano network fell from $473.33 million on March 16 to $371.51 million on April 10. This decline in TVL, combined with reduced trading volumes and fewer active developers, correlated with a 27% drop in ADA’s price, suggesting these metrics significantly influenced ADA's short-term price trends.

From a technical perspective, ADA's price movements reflect a broader corrective cycle that began in mid-March when the token reached a two-year high of $0.81. Profit-taking by traders, driven by an overbought relative strength index (RSI) reading above 70, contributed to the price correction. An RSI reading above 70 typically signals that an asset is overvalued and may be due for a trend reversal or pullback. Currently, ADA is moving downward within a descending parallel channel, with an RSI of 48 indicating continued bearish market conditions.

The path to recovery for ADA appears challenging. The recent price retracement showed further weakness after ADA was rejected from the descending channel’s upper boundary at $0.61. On-chain data from IntoTheBlock's In/Out of the Money Around Price (IOMAP) model confirmed this resistance level. Approximately 2.17 billion ADA were bought by around 132,970 addresses in the $0.58 to $0.60 price range, creating a significant barrier to upward price movement. For ADA to avoid further declines, it is crucial for the bulls to flip this resistance zone into support.