Cardano Drops 4.88% Amid Market Sentiment and Policy Shifts

Cardano's latest price was $0.6901, down 4.88% in the last 24 hours. This price movement reflects the broader market sentiment and the ongoing developments within the Cardano ecosystem. The cryptocurrency has seen a significant rise in trading volume for its derivatives, indicating growing interest from traders and large institutions. However, the open interest, which indicates the number of unsettled contracts, has slightly decreased, suggesting that traders might be taking profits on their positions. Additionally, ADA options trading has plummeted, indicating that investors are paying less attention to long-term risks.

The long/short ratio for Cardano’s native token is currently 0.8804, indicating more short positions than long ones on exchanges. However, on Binance, the ratio stands out with 2.6887 longs for every short placed, suggesting that more traders anticipate an increase in the price. On OKX, the long/short bias is 2.5984, reflecting that a number of traders are prepared to take risks by buying. Liquidations, which occur when there are insufficient funds to keep a trade open, have been frequent. Yesterday, the liquidation of ADA positions resulted in losses, with the majority attributed to long trades. Shorter time frames show similar patterns, with smaller amounts in hourly intervals.

Cardano’s long-term success is closely tied to its roadmap and the utilization of ADA in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) sector and various other blockchain applications. Despite daily price fluctuations, higher trade activity could pave the way for new developments. The market was recently spooked by the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a new piece of legislation that imposes high taxes on foreign-held U.S. investments and “weaponizes” the country’s capital markets. This law, if passed, would make it more expensive for foreign investors to participate in the U.S. markets. Despite these challenges, ADA whales have taken advantage of the latest pullback to buy a large amount of the token. The popular crypto trader Ali Martinez shared that whales bought more than 180 million ADA tokens worth approximately $13 million last week, indicating accumulation by the market’s “smart money” and supporting a bullish Cardano price forecast.

Cardano staking pool operator (SPO) Sssebi has sparked a debate by asserting that Cardano’s ADA could reach double-digit territory this year. In a thread that began, “These are the ingredients for $10 $ADA in 2025,” he listed five developments he believes will transform the eighth-largest cryptocurrency from a $0.70 token into a $10 asset. Each of those “ingredients” is now taking shape—and each comes with its own uncertainties. At the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Input Output (IO) stunned attendees by moving a live Bitcoin Ordinal across a new BitVM-based bridge to Cardano. IO called the demonstration “a preview of what is to come,” adding that the “Cardinal” protocol aims for full integration so BTC holders can lend, borrow and stake inside Cardano’s extended-UTxO environment. By transplanting Bitcoin liquidity onto a programmable ledger without wrapped custodial tokens, Cardano positions itself as a settlement layer for so-called BTCFi applications—an addressable market that today tops $1 trillion in dormant value.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson told that Midnight, his privacy-focused sidechain, will airdrop both NIGHT governance tokens and DUST privacy tokens to “approximately 37 million wallets across eight major blockchains”—with “zero allocation to venture capitalists.” “Every Consensus there’s a new token saying, ‘my thing is better,’” he said. “We’re going to give this away and let users decide.” The sheer scale dwarfs recent airdrops and could seed tens of millions of new ADA-capable addresses once Midnight’s cross-chain fee model pushes traffic back to the base chain. In February, the Securities and Exchange Commission acknowledged the application on 24 February, starting a 240-day clock that now runs to 22 October 2025. The agency’s first-phase deadline of 29 May was pushed to 15 July, following the pattern that preceded January’s Bitcoin ETF approvals. Grayscale has argued that ADA’s on-chain transparency and staking mechanics make it “substantially resistant to manipulation,” echoing the language that ultimately persuaded regulators on Bitcoin. An approval would give traditional investors a regulated conduit to stake-enabled yield—something no US crypto ETF yet offers.

President Donald Trump’s March executive order created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a US Digital Asset Stockpile to hold crypto seized in federal cases. A subsequent post surprised markets by naming “XRP, Solana and Cardano” for inclusion alongside Bitcoin and Ether; ADA jumped. Though the order bars fresh purchases of altcoins, Treasury accounting shows roughly $493 million in non-Bitcoin assets—ADA among them—already earmarked. Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov called the move “a reputational boost, signaling the US. views digital assets as strategic.” Inclusion in a sovereign reserve legitimises ADA for conservative allocators and could ease the path for futures and options listings. Hoskinson labels Leios “the capstone of the entire Ouroboros agenda … the fastest cryptocurrency on the planet.” In a May 1 livestream he said simulations show “tens of thousands of transactions per second” without sacrificing decentralization. The upgrade introduces parallel input, ranking and endorsement blocks, allowing throughput to be dialed up as adoption demands. If main-net integration lands in H2 2025, Leios would coincide with Midnight’s launch and the ETF review window—an alignment bulls see as catalytic.