• Cardano slides below the $0.2500 support amid fading retail demand.
• Cardano’s co-founder Charles Hoskinson promotes the network’s research proposal as voting continues.
• The proposal requests 23 million ADA to fund two-year network maintenance and enhance key integrations, including Circle USDC and LayerZero.

Cardano (ADA) edges lower below $0.2500 at the time of writing on Thursday. The smart contract token has maintained a persistent downtrend since the rejection near $0.2900 on May 10, reflecting broader risk-off sentiment in the crypto market.

The derivatives market mirrors the risk-off mood, with futures Open Interest (OI) cooling to $529 million from $533 million the day before and approximately $585 million on May 12. Persistent declines in OI suggest that investors lack confidence in ADA’s ability to sustain short to medium-term gains and are therefore unwilling to open new positions.

Cardano seeks $6M in new funding proposal

Cardano Critical Integrations V2, a new proposal requesting 23 million ADA valued at approximately $6 million at the current market rate, has been submitted on-chain, paving the way for a governance vote.

The proposal covers two-year costs for maintaining and enhancing integrations with Circle’s USDC stablecoin, LayerZero (ZRO), Pyth Network (PYTH) and native Fireblocks support.

Major ecosystem entities, including the Cardano Foundation (CF), Input Output (IO) Group, Emurgo and Midnight, collaboratively submitted the proposal with Intersect as the administrator.

However, the community on X is expressing skepticism, with some decentralized representatives (dReps) planning to vote against the proposal, citing incomplete V1 deliverables, excessive spending without measurable results, and a demand to return unused funds before the next funding is approved.

Charles Hoskinson, the co-founder of Cardano, urged dReps to support the proposal, stating that it was key to keeping researchers and scientists on the network. Hoskinson’s remarks come amid reports that some Japanese dReps are voting against the proposal.

“We cannot allow this achievement to be shattered and dismantled over some piecemeal funding support. Our scientists will simply leave for places that offer greater certainty and respect. Please, we ask that you delegate to dReps who support Cardano's research agenda,” Hoskinson wrote on X.

Price analysis: Cardano pressured by weak momentum signals

Cardano trades at $0.2483, extending its retreat beneath all key exponential moving averages and maintaining a bearish near-term bias. The pair sits well below the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $0.2585, with the 100-day EMA at $0.2795 and the longer-term 200-day EMA at $0.3567 reinforcing a layered topside cap.

A downward-sloping trendline resistance projected around $0.2855 further underscores the broader corrective structure, while a Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 42 on the daily chart suggests only modest downside pressure as oversold conditions remain absent. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) histogram has slipped deeper into negative territory on the same chart, with a bearish profile that hints at persistent selling interest on rallies.

On the topside, initial resistance lies at the 50-day EMA around $0.2585. A daily close above this barrier would be needed to ease immediate pressure. Beyond that, the 100-day EMA at $0.2795 converges towards the descending trendline resistance near $0.2855 to form a more substantial supply zone, ahead of the more distant 200-day EMA at $0.3567, which continues to define the medium-term bearish backdrop. A sustained decline would expose the demand at $0.2400 with deeper losses likely to retest the support at $0.2200, tested in early February.

(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool.)