Maurizio Says No to Cardano (ADA) in $10,000 Test, Sticks With Bitcoin

Maurizio's Bitcoin-Only Answer

Lark Davis put a $10,000 question to his guest on Monday, October 13, and the answer left Cardano (ADA) out entirely. Maurizio, the host of the Mr M Podcast, appeared on The Lark Davis Show and was asked what he would buy with a fresh $10,000: Cardano or Strive, the Bitcoin-focused treasury vehicle. There was nothing to think about, he replied. He would buy neither, and no altcoin at all. The Cardano price record of the last cycle is what framed the question in the first place.

Maurizio's portfolio tells the story behind the reply. He entered crypto in 2017 and, back when Cardano traded very cheap, swapped part of his Bitcoin into it, a move he now describes as the lesson that left him holding Bitcoin only. He keeps no Strategy (MSTR) product and no Strive product, just Bitcoin itself. Some older altcoins still sit in his wallets, but new purchases stopped long ago. With Ethereum back at its 2021 price range he sees no case for selling yet, though his stated end goal is a portfolio with nothing but Bitcoin (BTC), and he does not recommend altcoins to anyone. He traced the fading interest in old positions to products such as Strategy and Strive, arguing that Bitcoin investors now pick derivatives and digital credits over NFTs or memecoins. The regret he described is the mirror image of FOMO: the swap he made when ADA looked cheap is the trade he is now unwinding. Davis pressed the point that holding a position every day is, psychologically, still buying it. Maurizio answered that he would still sit in profit if he sold everything now, that he is waiting for a specific Ethereum-versus-Bitcoin level to rotate, and that clearing out the altcoins was already the plan.

Strive's 90% Gap to $260

Davis built his side of the case on the Strive chart itself. The stock bottomed near $7 in February, climbed back above its 20-day and 50-day exponential moving averages around $12, and since August 19 has not once touched the 20-day line, which makes Monday the first test of that pullback. A double top is visible on the chart, yet the peak reached after the company adopted its Bitcoin (BTC) strategy in 2025 sits near $260, and the shares trade roughly 90% below it. Reclaiming the old high would take a 10x move; reaching $500, double that peak, would take 20x. Over the previous cycle, Davis noted, Bitcoin rose about 67x while Strategy gained 36x, whereas Cardano managed only a climb from $0.10-$0.15 to just over $1. The market cap comparison cut deeper: Strive carries $2-2.5 billion against Cardano's $10 billion, a gap he said he could not explain. Viewed through a Bitcoin bull's eyes, he called the proof-of-stake network a failing one and described its network metrics as shockingly bad. He put $100 into Strive during the broadcast and said he has weighed rotating his Strategy position into it. Davis's own Cardano history gave the argument weight: he bought at $0.02-$0.03 in 2017, averaged in at $0.06-$0.07 and sold near $1 for a 50x return, yet he told listeners to review their holdings regularly and to ask whether they would buy each asset today. In his words, if you are not investing because you believe in the upside, it is not investing, it is charity. Both men stressed on air that none of it was investment advice.

Whales Already Voting With Sales

The interview lands on a market that has already been selling. Cardano (ADA) whales offloaded more than 110 million ADA in five days, and Cardano open interest fell $44 million as retail traders stepped back, leaving fewer hands to absorb supply while a widely followed voice brands the network a failure. Even staking yield does not answer the question Davis keeps asking, which is whether you would buy the asset today at its current market value. Neither Davis nor Maurizio named a level that would flip their reading, so the bearish case they drew stays open-ended, and the Cardano technical analysis picture is left as the only scoreboard to judge it against.