Cardano (ADA) is trading mostly steady early on Monday, after going through somewhat of a slide a few hours ago, but is still down by nearly 1.5% since the past 24 hours. At the time of writing, ADA/USD is trading around $1.41, falling below the key $1.45 level earlier in the day.

The bearish moves could be driven by the downslide in the leading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum that are losing ground since the previous session. In the world of cryptocurrencies, market sentiment is one of the biggest contributors to price action and how the leading digital currencies like BTC and ETH perform often have an overarching impact on investor sentiment, impacting other crypto assets as well.

On the fundamentals side, however, there are several encouraging developments that are offering ADA support and limiting its losses. Leading crypto asset management firm Grayscale announced the inclusion of Cardano to its portfolio, as part of its Digital Large Cap Fund. This is likely to spur further interest in the digital asset among more institutional investors in the near-term, which could drive the value of ADA higher soon.

Meanwhile, a Twitter war is brewing between skeptics and Cardano’s co-founder Charles Hoskinson over the adoption rates of its blockchain technology so far. A year ago, Hoskinson had optimistically forecast that the Cardano network would support numerous projects, dApps and assets – coming under fire now from skeptics who quote the numbers are far from the estimates he put out.

According to data on CardanoAssets, there are over 6,800 assets operational on the network; however, only two of them see transactions upwards of 10,000 on a monthly basis. On the positive side, supporters of Cardano anticipate that its upcoming upgrade which will enable smart contract capabilities will drive adoption rates higher for the ‘Ethereum killer’ and send its price upwards, in line with our previous forecast.

Key Levels to Watch

On the 4-hour chart of ADA/USD, most of the moving averages are suggesting a bullish bias. However, leading technical indicators MACD and momentum, in addition to the larger timeframe MAs – 200 SMA and 200 EMA are pointing to the presence of sellers.

The price is sitting right on the pivot point at the $1.41 level, and if buying pressure builds up, we can see the price rise all the way till $1.54 where they could encounter resistance. On the other hand, an increase in selling activity could see Cardano’s price tumble to test the support at $1.33.