There are now 6,710 Cardano millionaires following latest ADA surge

Cardano has rewarded its investors with significant gains this year, with a growing number of holders joining the coveted millionaires’ club following the latest ADA price surge.

Since the start of the year, the number of millionaire investors in ADA has increased more than 13-fold to 6,710 as of May 17, according to United Kingdom-based news agency Finbold. Using data from Coin Metrics, the agency determined that there were just 504 ADA addresses worth at least $1 million on Jan. 1.

The number of active ADA addresses also grew by 417.81% between Jan. 1 and April 28.

ADA’s value has skyrocketed nearly 1,040% since the start of the year, up from $0.18 to $2.08 at the time of publication. The cryptocurrency peaked closer to $2.40 earlier in the week, setting multiple record highs in the process.

As Cointelegraph recently reported, ADA has entered a new price discovery phase, which means further upside could be in store over the short term. The cryptocurrency now has a market capitalization of $66.1 billion, placing it in the fourth position among active projects. ADA has overtaken Dogecoin (DOGE), Tether (USDT) and XRP amid the latest rally.

Perhaps equally as important is the fact that ADA appears to be bucking the current crypto market downtrend. Over the past seven days, ADA has appreciated by 19%. By comparison, Bitcoin (BTC) has declined 22.6%, and Ether (ETH) is down 15.2%.

In addition to having one of the most dedicated cryptocurrency communities in the industry, Cardano is also benefiting from positive news from Input Out Hong Kong, or IOHK. The smart contract platform’s development arm recently explained that its forthcoming Alonzo upgrade is being gradually deployed to the mainnet in May and June.

IOHK also recently partnered with the Ethiopian government to revamp the African nation’s education system. Under the partnership, IOHK will deploy its blockchain solutions across the country, with up to 5 million students potentially benefiting from the program.