Cardano (ADA -7.72%) is plunging on Thursday. The cryptocurrency lost 8.6% as of 1:50 p.m. ET and was down as much as 9% earlier in the day. The decline comes as the broader crypto market retreats amid growing economic concerns.
President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, announced yesterday from the White House, have triggered a risk-off sentiment that's hitting the cryptocurrency market particularly hard. The macro news overshadowed a positive announcement from the Cardano Foundation.
Trump announced extensive new tariffs on imports from countries around the globe yesterday from the White House Rose Garden. The tariffs are levied on almost every trading partner the U.S. has and their scale and breadth has shocked the market. Some investors had hoped the tariffs would be more limited in scope.
The fear that the tariffs have induced has created a "risk-off" environment -- that is, a market in which investors move away from speculative assets toward secure assets. Investors fear that the tariffs will lead to higher inflation and rising interest rates, exacerbating the issue. Cryptocurrency in general is perceived as risky and Cardano was not spared.
The body responsible for developing and maintaining Cardano announced Veridian, an open-source digital identity platform intended for both individuals and organizations. Veridian uses open-source "key event receipt infrastructure" (KERI), decentralized identifiers, and "authentic chained data container" (ACDC) credentials to verify identities and authenticate online communication.
Alongside the platform itself, the foundation released the Veridian Wallet, which allows users to manage their credentials, private keys, and identifiers. The technology is designed to increase trust in the Cardano blockchain, potentially expanding its enterprise use cases. The new technology highlights the foundation's commitment to pushing Cardano forward. Still, given the state of the market, I would hold off on Cardano for now.
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