Longtime Cardano supporter and cryptocurrency commentator Dan Gambardello said the precipitous demise of ADA exposed deeper frustrations within the Cardano ecosystem, even as he maintained that the technology underlying the project remains one of the strongest in crypto.

In the long one post in X Gambardello described the problem as more significant than the price itself. He argued that Cardano’s more than 80% decline from 2024 levels should be seen in the context of a broader decline in the value of altcoins, rather than as evidence that the network itself is failing. Still, he said the market weakness has heightened long-standing concerns about ecosystem support, leadership, public optics and Cardano’s relative isolation from the broader cryptocurrency market.

“Let me just say… Cardano is down over 80% from 2024, as are many altcoins. It’s not because Cardano is failing. It’s because altcoins are being destroyed,” Gambardello wrote. “So please try to separate price from everything I write here. Just to be clear: this is not me speaking against the project.”

Why is Cardano price falling?

Gambardello said he remains a supporter of Cardano and still believes ADA could participate if the broad altcoin bull market returns. His criticism, however, was aimed at what he described as years of missed opportunities. In his view, Cardano had the reputation, funding and top-10 market positioning needed to define its narrative and strengthen its ecosystem, but had failed to fully leverage that leverage.

The post stood out because Gambardello is one of Cardano’s most evident, long-term supporters. He recalled switching from Litecoin to Cardano before the 2020-2021 bull market, which he described as one of his best cryptocurrency investments. At the time, he said, Cardano’s setup looked compelling as staking came to the Internet, the community grew and the project emerged as a sedate answer to blockchain’s trilemma of scalability, decentralization and security.

This belief has not disappeared. Gambardello called Cardano a “great project” with “some of the strongest core technologies in crypto,” adding that it’s “not the end of the game.” However, he said his view of the dynamics of some ecosystems has changed because expected progress has not occurred.

“Simply put, it was frustrating that nothing came to light all these years,” he wrote. “Things that would help the Cardano ecosystem so much. I don’t need to go into detail, but like many of you, I have expressed my opinions on this topic many times.”

Gambardello said Cardano has remained “very isolated” and has repeatedly gone through periods of “unnecessarily bad optics.” The most immediate cause of his post was the recent announcement that TapTools, Cardano’s widely used analytics and ecosystem platform, would be shutting down. He described TapTools as the “hub of Cardano” and said its closure was exactly the type of loss the network couldn’t afford during a keen bear market.

His frustration wasn’t just because the project was coming to an end. It was the answer, or in his opinion, the lack of it. Gambardello said he expected there would be a evident effort from management and the community to unite around a key front end of the ecosystem, even if it didn’t mean direct support.

“I’m not saying that every great project deserves a ‘bailout,’ but when Cardano’s interface, and essentially its dashboard, is about to shut down, you brainstorm… and you do it with a positive attitude,” he wrote. “By running L1, you rally the troops and the community with a clear determination to make sure the heart of this L1 doesn’t have to close its doors, especially in the worst crypto market in history.”

Gambardello compared the TapTools situation to the Cardano Foundation’s communications regarding other initiatives, including the Brazilian Olympics and activities related to Token2049. He said these efforts could be profitable in isolation, but they seemed misplaced while Cardano’s central platform was preparing to shut down.

“Shutting down TapTools is the last thing Cardano needs right now and it feels like it was an ‘oh well’ moment,” he wrote. “Cardano now needs to keep its best players in the game and that hasn’t happened.”

He added that the broader issue is that negative events often escalate into X-rated drama, worsening reputational damage. Gambardello said the “continuous drama” surrounding Cardano has become exhausting, especially for people who have been defending the project for years.

This exhaustion helps explain why he has been diversifying his content, areas of interest and portfolio for more than a year, he said. Gambardello rejected the notion that such a change amounts to betrayal, instead portraying it as a normal response to changing markets and evolving risks.

At the time of publication, ADA was trading at $0.16.

Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com