Cardano’s ADA is outperforming much of the crypto market, posting double-digit gains while bitcoin and other large-cap tokens continue to trade within established ranges.
ADA advanced 10% over the past 24 hours and was up 4% since midnight UTC, moving above $0.27 for the first time since May, according to CoinDesk data. VVV, ENA and PEPE also gained roughly 5% over the same period.
The move stands out against more subdued performance from the largest cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin (BTC) gained 1%, while ether (ETH) rose 0.5%. BTC remained confined to its recent $84,000-$87,000 range.
The reason for ADA’s sharp move is not immediately clear. However, investors may be responding to renewed momentum around Cardano’s “RealFi” initiative, which was announced Oct. 1 and allows users to direct stablecoins into institutional credit products offering yields of up to 9% annually.
Expectations surrounding Cardano’s upcoming Dijkstra era could provide another source of support. Phase 1 of the network’s scalability and optimization program is expected between late December 2026 and early 2027. The rollout will introduce Linear Leios and nested transactions, aimed at significantly increasing transaction throughput.
Dollar Strength
The U.S. Dollar Index reached 102.53 early Monday, its highest point since April 2025, extending its climb from the Sept. 9 low of 98.60.
A rising DXY is often viewed as a negative factor for bitcoin and crypto assets, although historical data points to only a limited correlation between the dollar index and crypto prices.
Derivatives Market
Bitcoin open interest declined modestly to $22.0 billion from $22.4 billion Friday. Funding rates remained elevated across trading venues, generally between 4% and 10% annualized, while the three-month annualized basis stayed around 5%-6%.
Leverage has remained relatively stable after Friday’s buildup, suggesting traders have not significantly reduced their long exposure.
Options positioning continued to favor calls. The 24-hour put/call ratio was 87/13 in favor of calls, while the one-week 25-delta skew fell to -7% from approximately 1.5%. The at-the-money term structure remained in contango, with the front end around 24%-25% and implied volatility reaching roughly 39% by late 2027.
Coinglass data showed $174 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours. Short positions accounted for 72%, while longs represented 28%. BTC recorded $74 million in liquidations, followed by ETH at $31 million and other tokens at $13 million.
Binance’s liquidation heatmap places $87,150 among the key levels to watch if bitcoin resumes its upward move.
Token Performance
Sui (SUI) climbed nearly 7% over 24 hours to around $1.85, leading major layer-1 tokens higher. The rally followed a technical breakout and growing trader interest ahead of the Basecamp ecosystem event.
Ethena (ENA) dropped nearly 9% to $0.24, ranking among the largest declines for major DeFi assets. Selling intensified as traders prepared for an early-October unlock involving 3.03 billion tokens.
Solana (SOL) and Uniswap (UNI) each declined about 0.4%, trading near $121 and $9.06. BNB remained nearly flat around $788 as the wider market continued moving sideways after recent inflation data.
Monad (MON) fell more than 4% over 24 hours to roughly $0.032. The decline came despite StraitsX, a Singapore-based fintech, announcing plans to issue native SGD and USD stablecoins on Monad.
Zcash (ZEC) lost 2% to about $1,330 as privacy-token momentum weakened, with traders turning their attention toward layer-1 performance and forthcoming token unlocks.
