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Cardano, the 10th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has achieved a major milestone, but it is unrelated to ADA's price. The percentage of ADA held by long-term holders has reached an all-time high, accounting for nearly 40% of the total supply. The proportion of long-term holders is also at its peak. 

According to data from IntoTheBlock, 72% of ADA holders are classified as hodlers, having held their ADA for over a year. Twenty-five percent are cruisers, referring to addresses with a holding period between one and twelve months, and 3% are traders having held their ADA for less than one month. 

Hodlers refer to long-term investors; cruisers are mid-term or so-called swing traders, while traders are short-term speculators.

Increasing new use cases across the Cardano blockchain likely played a key role in the sustained growth of hodlers, as these long-term addresses may want to keep their holdings to be able to benefit from these applications.

What this means for Cardano

The high percentage of long-term holders is a positive indicator for Cardano, indicating that the community has strong faith in the project's future.

As indicated in a recent analysis by IntoTheBlock, Cardano settles around $7.2 billion daily in on-chain volume, outperforming several other networks. This yields an exceptionally low NVT ratio of just 2.62, which may indicate that ADA is undervalued. If this is the case, the significant amount of long-term holders might suggest that ADA holders are willing to wait for its potential to be fully realized.

Expectations are in place for the Chang #1 hard fork, which will introduce governance to Cardano. According to an Aug. 12 update shared by Intersect, great progress has been made by stake pool operators, with 67% of SPOs having upgraded to v9.1.0. The hard fork threshold for SPOs is now closer to being reached.

Many crypto exchanges have also confirmed development work is well under way, with the first few signaling readiness.