Cardano Drops 3% as NIGHT Airdrop Fuels Volatility and Market Weakness Weighs
Cardano’s ADA token slid nearly 3% in the last 24 hours, trading at $0.72 amid broader crypto market pressure and heightened volatility following the launch of Midnight’s NIGHT token airdrop. The price struggled to stay above the critical $0.740 support level.
ADA’s trading session was marked by sharp fluctuations, with a 3.47% swing between the low of $0.734 and the high of $0.760. After briefly surging from $0.745 to $0.760 on strong volume, the token faced stiff resistance, falling to $0.735 before rebounding to $0.755. However, continued sell pressure capped gains, and ADA eventually settled around $0.739, signaling ongoing bearish momentum.
The broader crypto market also faced downward pressure, with the CoinDesk 20 Index slipping by 1.7%. Bitcoin showed comparable losses, while ADA underperformed slightly due to token-specific headwinds.
Contributing to the volatility was the launch of the Glacier Drop, an airdrop by Midnight — a partner chain leveraging Cardano for settlement. The event distributed roughly 2.62 billion NIGHT tokens (around 11% of total supply) to wallets linked to XRP addresses. Additional distributions are expected for holders of ETH, SOL, BNB, AVAX, BAT, and other tokens.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson highlighted growing institutional interest in the Midnight project, citing private conversations with major financial players exploring anonymous crypto trading infrastructure. “We’ve met with all the big guys,” Hoskinson said in a recent interview.
In parallel, Cardano’s development team, Input Output Global (IOG), received community approval for a $71 million on-chain treasury proposal to fund upgrades over the next 12 months. However, the vote drew criticism from segments of the Cardano community, who raised concerns about transparency and allocation oversight.
