Cardano Clings to $0.74 Support Amid Explosive Allegations Against Founder

ADA's Market Moves

Despite the swirling storm of controversy, Cardano (ADA) is gripping tight to that $0.74 support level like a lifeline. The token's up a modest 1.4% over the last 24 hours, but it's still licking its wounds from a 5.6% drop last week. With a trading volume of $856 million in the past day, down 15% from the day before, the market's cooled off a bit but it's still humming along. ADA's a long way off from its all-time high of $3.09 back in September 2021 - we're talking nearly 75% lower today.

Serious Allegations Rock Cardano

The latest drama? Serious allegations against Cardano's mastermind, Charles Hoskinson. He's under fire after NFT artist Masato Alexander dropped a bombshell on May 7, claiming Hoskinson pulled a fast one, using his insider access to shuffle around a whopping 318 million ADA - that's about $619 million at the time - during the 2021 Allegra hard fork.

Alexander's pointing fingers at a sneaky two-step process. First, they allegedly wiped out unclaimed ADA from the 2017 initial coin offering, then used a special Move Instantaneous Rewards transaction to funnel funds under Hoskinson's or Input Output Global's control. That's the company behind Cardano, by the way.

In 2021, Charles Hoskinson allegedly used his genesis keys to REWRITE the Cardano ledger and seize control of ₳318m ($619m). For perspective, when the DAO hack hit Ethereum in 2016, the community forked over $60m. We're talking one of the biggest ledger shake-ups in blockchain history here, folks.

Alexander's also crying foul over the lack of transparency in these moves, noting that only a measly $7 million was officially handed over to the Cardano governance group Intersect. He's comparing it to the 2016 Ethereum DAO hack, but arguing Cardano's community oversight is nowhere near as tight.

Hoskinson Fires Back

Hoskinson's not taking these claims lying down. He's come out swinging, calling them false and straight-up damaging. He's saying over 99.8% of ADA from the 2017 token sale was redeemed, and the leftover unclaimed funds - around 18 to 24 million ADA - were later donated to Intersect.

As for that October 2021 transaction? Hoskinson's insisting it was all part of an automated process to keep unredeemed tokens from going to waste. He's also promising a full audit of the treasury transactions, to be dropped by the Cardano Foundation.

The backlash has hit him hard. Hoskinson says he's "deeply hurt" by the community's reaction and is thinking about taking a break from social media. He's reflecting on who his real friends are in this crisis, thanking those who've had his back both privately and publicly.

ADA's Technical Outlook

Despite the wild ride, technical indicators suggest ADA's in a holding pattern right now. The relative strength index is chilling at 51.7, showing neutral momentum. The MACD's got a negative crossover and not much upward pressure, leaning a bit bearish.

Looking at those moving averages, the 10-day and 20-day EMAs and SMAs are putting up a fight as resistance, hinting at short-term selling pressure. But the longer-term support from the 30-, 50-, 100-, and 200-day moving averages is still trending up.

The key to stopping the bleeding might be ADA's ability to stay above that 100-day EMA at $0.73. If the bulls can muscle back above the 10-day EMA around $0.76, we could see ADA charging towards $0.78 or higher.

But if current support levels crumble, the price could tumble below $0.72, maybe even hitting $0.70 or $0.68. Right now, both sides are on the edge of their seats, waiting for that next big move. The outlook? Neutral, but ready to explode at any moment.