Early on Thursday, Cardano (ADA) appears to be holding on to its gains after spiking past the $1.30 level, as the conclusion of Fed’s last FOMC meeting of the year brought back some investor confidence in cryptocurrencies and drove some bullish moves across the board. At the time of writing, ADA/USD is trading at around $1.31.

Although the sentiment is supporting the positive moves in the ADA price for now, Cardano could face considerable obstacles in climbing higher as it is weighed down by some mixed news. One of the most worrisome news that can keep investors away from ADA is data from Coin Metrics that reveals that the top 10% of Cardano whales hold around 94% of the entire supply of its native token currently in circulation. While this does not bode well from the perspective of decentralization as far as the cryptocurrency is concerned, some may take it as a positive development, considering this percentage of whales have increased their holdings in the token from 30 billion at the beginning of this year to over 33 billion till date.

In addition, there could be more bearish pressure building up in Cardano after the discovery of an exploit which could affect every dApp developed on its blockchain – a news that could potentially delay the launch of dApps further. Last week, Jonathan Fischoff, the founder of Canonical – a company with expertise in Plutus smart contracts, alerted the blockchain’s community about an exploit in their initial smart contract. On a positive note, Fischoff has confirmed that he is working with Plutus developers to raise awareness about the exploit and working towards its rectification.

In terms of adoption among dApps, things are busy in Cardano’s ecosystem, as they have been since the Alonzo upgrade, although this has failed to provide much excitement to investors so far. AdaSwap, one of the first DEXs on the blockchain, is set to launch its token sale on Cardstarter to raise funds towards developing and launching as Cardano’s very first DEX.

Meanwhile, another dApp on the blockchain, Cardano’s DeFi banking protocol MELD will deploy the Force Bridge to boost its liquidity soon. The solution, once developed, will allow users to transact between Cardano and Nervos chains. MELD is an important dApp within the ecosystem, enjoying the distinction of supporting staking of $1 billion worth of ADA tokens so far.

ADA/USD Technical Analysis

On the H4 price chart of ADA/USD, most of the moving averages and the MACD suggest that it’s a good time to buy. Although, the 50 EMA, 100 EMA and 200 EMA along with the momentum indicator point to some selling interest as well.

Cardano’s price is holding under the pivot point at $1.33 but comfortably away from the immediate support at $1.19. We should closely monitor the price action around the pivot point as more buyers stepping in can see ADA overcome this level.