Cardano ($ADA) whale transactions have recently shot up to a 4-month high after the price of the cryptocurrency plunged to a bottom at $0.40 earlier this year. Whales were seemingly buying the dip ahead of an upcoming hard fork that will improve the network’s performance.

According to on-chain analytics firm Santiment, ADA whale transactions – defined as those with a value above the $100,000 mark – jumped to 1,085 earlier this month, the largest spike seen since January of this year, after a sustained downtrend for the cryptocurrency.

As Santiment points out, these spikes have “very commonly indicated price direction changes” for the cryptocurrency, and data appears to show whales moved in on the cryptocurrency’s bottom as ADA is now trading at $0.582.

The spike in whale transactions came after whales started accumulating ADA once again five weeks ago after selling off their holdings over a 7-month period that saw them dump ADA tokens on the market. Notably, ADA  investors have been seemingly holding onto their funds throughout the bear market.

Data from Coinbase’s price pages shows ADA has a typical hold time of 121 days, meaning that ADA users on the platform hold onto their assets for over four months before “selling it or sending it to another account or address.”

According to the cryptocurrency exchange, a long hold time “signals an accumulation trend,” while a short hold time “indicates increased movement of tokens.”

As CryptoGlobe reported, the number of addresses holding Cardano has kept on rising in April to a new all-time high of 5.2 million, even as activity on the cryptocurrency’s blockchain plunged.

According to CryptoCompare’s latest Asset Report, the number of addresses holding ADA grew 2.99% last month to 5.2 million, partly thanks to an increase in the number of token holders from 529,000 in March to 679,000 in April, and to a rise in the number of cruisers from 3.84 million to 4.14 million.

The accumulation comes ahead of the Vasil hard fork, which is scheduled for June. The hard fork, according to Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, will deliver a “massive performance improvement” to the network.

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