Cardano (ADA) has faced significant price fluctuations in 2025, with early hopes of a price breakout now tempered by its ongoing struggle to maintain momentum. After briefly surging past the $0.60 resistance level, ADA’s price action has remained largely inconsistent, caught in a sideways movement that has disappointed both short-term traders and long-term investors. While Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, has repeatedly touted lofty price targets—specifically claiming that ADA could hit $10 per token—reality paints a more conservative picture. At the time of writing, ADA’s price remains stubbornly below $1, making the $10 target seem increasingly distant.

Looking at the broader context of Q2 2025, ADA had an explosive start. In early February, the token saw a massive surge, with volume rocketing past $1.8 billion and pushing its price to $0.80 within just four days. However, the excitement quickly faded, and now ADA finds itself struggling to break past the $0.60 resistance with volume barely reaching $640 million. The token’s trading behavior has shifted into consolidation mode, with minimal volatility to drive meaningful price action. For the time being, ADA’s price seems to be stuck in a holding pattern, unable to maintain the bullish momentum that fueled the initial rally.

One of the significant indicators that highlight ADA’s current struggle is its Relative Strength Index (RSI). Despite a few brief moments in the overbought zone, primarily triggered by short-term hype, the token has failed to sustain prolonged upward movement. This suggests that any upward momentum in ADA has been largely fueled by speculative interest, rather than sustainable, long-term growth. In fact, the frequency of ADA reaching overbought levels has been low in 2025, signaling that the buying interest may not be as strong as hoped.

Given this cooling-off period, expectations for the remainder of Q2 should be tempered. ADA’s recent price action suggests that it may struggle to reclaim the $1 mark, let alone approach the bold $10 target set by its supporters. In the short term, ADA seems to lack the technical and fundamental drivers needed for a significant breakout. Without some dramatic shift in sentiment or a catalyst that renews enthusiasm, Cardano’s price is likely to stay below the $1 level for the foreseeable future.

Despite the technical difficulties, Cardano’s fundamentals remain an important part of the broader narrative. Hoskinson’s long-term vision for the network focuses on Cardano’s ability to deliver scalable, sustainable solutions in the blockchain space. However, recent network activity does not exactly paint a picture of bullish growth. Cardano’s network fees, which reflect the blockchain’s transactional usage, have dropped by 52% over the past three months, now sitting at just $8.1k. This significant decrease in fees indicates lower activity on the network, which is hardly a bullish signal for ADA’s price action.

Additionally, Cardano’s performance across multiple key metrics, such as transaction count and active addresses, has been at multi-month lows. The decline in these metrics raises questions about the level of adoption and the overall utility of the platform. These factors, combined with the lack of price momentum, make the $1 target seem like the most realistic goal in the short term. On the other hand, achieving the $10 mark seems increasingly unlikely without a substantial shift in both market sentiment and Cardano’s fundamental metrics.

In conclusion, Cardano’s current price action and market behavior indicate that a $1 price point is a more achievable short-term target. The dream of hitting $10 remains far off, with ADA needing significant improvements in both its network activity and market fundamentals to gain traction toward such lofty goals. For now, investors and traders should keep their expectations in check, as Cardano faces a critical test of its viability in the coming months.