Cardano’s ADA token surged 10 percent in 24 hours to more than 27 cents, its highest price since May, while Bitcoin and Ether barely budged. The move comes as the U.S. Dollar Index hit 102.53 early today, its highest since April 2025, extending a rise from a Sept. 9 low of 98.60.
Among the tokens traded on CoinDesk, ADA is the clear outlier, having climbed 10 percent over the past 24 hours, with its value rising 4 percent since midnight UTC. Smaller tokens such as VVV, ENA, and PEPE have also risen, though only by 5 percent in 24 hours. Bitcoin managed a modest gain of just 1 percent, settling at $85,498.45. Ether likewise edged up 0.5 percent to reach $2,703.04, each remaining within its established range.
Key Facts Box
- ADA surged 10 percent in 24 hours to over 27 cents
- ADA’s highest price since May
- U.S. Dollar Index hit 102.53, highest since April 2025
- Dollar Index rose from Sept. 9 low of 98.60
- Bitcoin gained 1 percent to $85,498.45
- Ether gained 0.5 percent to $2,703.04
Why ADA Outperformed
The exact reason for ADA’s outperformance is hard to pin down. One possible driver is Cardano’s RealFi institutional-credit product, announced on Oct. 1, which lets users route stablecoins into institutional credit for up to 9 percent annual yields. The Dijkstra era, the network’s next major scalability and optimization phase, is also due for its initial Phase 1 rollout between late December 2026 and early 2027, introducing Linear Leios and nested transactions to boost transaction throughput.
Both factors could be pulling in capital.
Derivatives Show a Bearish Bet
Friday saw Bitcoin’s open interest edge down to $22.0B from $22.4B, even as funding rates remained high and scattered between 4 and 10 percent annualized across trading venues. Across platforms, the 3-month annualized basis stayed within the 5–6 percent range. Positioning has held steady since Friday’s accumulation, with leveraged long positions remaining in place instead of being reduced.
Call volume continued to outweigh puts over the trading session, with a put/call ratio of 87/13, or roughly 24 hours in favor of calls. The 1-week 25-delta skew shifted into negative territory, dropping from around 1.5 percent to -7 percent. The ATM term structure remains in contango, with the front end sitting at about 24–25 percent and rising to roughly 39 percent by late 2027.
Liquidations Hit $174M
Coinglass data shows $174M in 24-hour liquidations, with a 28-72 split between longs and shorts. BTC ($74M), ETH ($31M) and Others ($13M) were the leaders in notional liquidations. Binance’s liquidation heatmap indicates $87,150 as a core liquidation level to monitor, in case of a price rise.
Other Tokens Move in Their Own Directions
After breaking through a technical level and growing trader interest in its upcoming Basecamp ecosystem event, SUI SUI$1.1900 outpaced other major layer-1 altcoins, rising nearly 7 percent to trade near $1.85. In contrast, Ethena (ENA) fell nearly 9 percent to $0.24, one of the day’s largest declines among large-cap DeFi protocols, as selling pressure grew ahead of a massive 3.03 billion token unlock set for early October.
Uniswap (UNI) and Solana (SOL) each dipped slightly, losing roughly 0.4 percent, to sit close to $121 and $9.06, while BNB barely budged at about $788, as the wider market settled down after fresh inflation numbers came out.
The token MON$0.03252 declined by 4 percent to $0.032, disappointing investors who had grown hopeful, even as news emerged that Singapore-based fintech StraitsX intends to launch native SGD and USD stablecoins on the network. Meanwhile, Zcash (ZEC) lost 2.0 percent to $1,330, with traders returning their attention to layer-1 performance and upcoming token unlock events.
What We Know About ADA’s Surge
- The RealFi product offers up to 9 percent annual yields on routed stablecoins, announced on Oct. 1.
- The Dijkstra era’s initial Phase 1 rollout runs between late December 2026 and early 2027, adding Linear Leios and nested transactions.
- Options positioning is heavily call-skewed, with a put/call ratio of 87/13 in favor of calls.
- Bitcoin’s open interest eased slightly to $22.0B from $22.4B Friday, with funding rates elevated and dispersed.
What makes the surge stand out is that it occurs in a market where Bitcoin and Ether barely moved. The token is trading at its highest level since May, and the cause behind the move has yet to be confirmed. The RealFi product and the Dijkstra upgrade give reasons to watch, but the precise driver remains unidentified.
The token is currently trading with a clear upward move, while the major coins are only showing modest gains and remain within their usual, narrow price bands.
Source material: “Cardano's ADA leads gains in narrow range-bound market,” CoinDesk.
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