Cardano’s ADA has taken the lead among major crypto gainers, rising sharply while bitcoin and other top assets remain confined to their recent trading ranges.

ADA gained 10% over 24 hours and was up 4% since midnight UTC, trading above $0.27 and reaching its highest level since May, CoinDesk data showed. VVV, ENA and PEPE also advanced about 5% during the same period.

The broader market was considerably quieter. Bitcoin (BTC) rose 1% and ether (ETH) gained 0.5%, with BTC continuing to move between $84,000 and $87,000.

ADA’s catalyst remains difficult to identify. One possible factor is renewed interest in Cardano’s “RealFi” initiative, announced Oct. 1. The product allows users to route stablecoins into institutional credit opportunities that offer yields of up to 9% annually.

Another potential driver is anticipation surrounding Cardano’s Dijkstra era. Phase 1 of the network’s next scalability and optimization stage is expected between late December 2026 and early 2027. The upgrade will introduce Linear Leios and nested transactions, with both designed to substantially increase transaction throughput.

Dollar Moves Higher

The U.S. Dollar Index climbed to 102.53 early Monday, marking its highest level since April 2025. The gain extends the DXY’s recovery from 98.60 on Sept. 9.

Dollar strength is traditionally viewed as a headwind for bitcoin and other crypto assets, although the historical relationship between DXY movements and crypto prices remains relatively weak.

Derivatives Positioning

BTC open interest eased to $22.0 billion from $22.4 billion on Friday. Funding rates remained elevated and varied across venues, generally sitting between 4% and 10% annualized. The three-month annualized basis stayed around 5%-6%.

Leverage remains relatively firm following Friday’s buildup, with long positions showing no major signs of unwinding.

Options activity remained tilted toward calls, with the 24-hour put/call ratio at 87/13. The one-week 25-delta skew turned negative at -7%, down from approximately 1.5%. The at-the-money term structure stayed in contango, ranging from roughly 24%-25% at the front end to around 39% by late 2027.

Coinglass recorded $174 million in liquidations over the last 24 hours. Shorts represented 72% of the total, while longs accounted for 28%. Bitcoin led with $74 million in liquidations, followed by ether at $31 million and other assets at $13 million.

Binance’s liquidation heatmap highlights $87,150 as a level worth watching if BTC pushes higher.

Token Roundup

Sui (SUI) jumped nearly 7% over 24 hours to around $1.85, outperforming other large layer-1 tokens. The rise followed a technical breakout and increased anticipation around its upcoming Basecamp ecosystem event.

Ethena (ENA) dropped nearly 9% to $0.24, putting it among the day’s weakest large-cap DeFi tokens. The selling came as traders prepared for a 3.03 billion-token unlock scheduled for early October.

Solana (SOL) and Uniswap (UNI) each slipped 0.4%, trading near $121 and $9.06. BNB was nearly unchanged around $788 as the broader market consolidated following recent inflation-related macroeconomic data.

Monad (MON) declined more than 4% over 24 hours to about $0.032, despite StraitsX announcing plans to issue native SGD and USD stablecoins on the network. Broader market weakness overshadowed the development.

Zcash (ZEC) fell 2% to around $1,330 as interest in privacy-focused tokens cooled and traders shifted their attention toward layer-1 assets and upcoming token unlocks.