ADA Outperforms Bitcoin and Ethereum as Cardano On-Chain Activity Lags

Cardano’s native asset (ADA) outperformed Bitcoin and Ethereum in the seven days to 10:59 UTC on September 22. Price and trading activity strengthened together, while network usage and dollar liquidity remained closer to recent levels.

Price and Trading Volume Strengthen

The asset traded near $0.245, gaining approximately 20.1% over seven days and 14% over 30 days. Bitcoin increased around 12% during the same seven-day period, while Ethereum rose 11.1%.

CoinGecko reported close to $935 million in spot volume over the latest rolling 24 hours. Because that figure included an unfinished trading day, completed daily data provide a more stable comparison.

Average daily spot volume reached approximately $484 million between September 15 and September 21, up from about $423 million during the previous seven days. That represents an increase of roughly 14%.

Derivatives markets also attracted additional capital. CoinGlass placed aggregated open interest near $594 million, with one snapshot recording a 9.3% increase over 24 hours. Futures volume approached $1 billion across the exchanges tracked by the platform.

Funding rates on several major exchanges remained near 0.01% per funding interval. The aggregated long-to-short ratio was close to balanced, although Binance account data reflected a stronger long bias.

Around $3.6 million in positions were liquidated during the latest 24-hour period. Short liquidations accounted for approximately $2.8 million, compared with about $760,000 in long liquidations.

The figures reflect stronger spot demand and increased leveraged participation. A consistent seven-day series for open interest and funding rates was not available, preventing a reliable comparison of how quickly derivatives exposure expanded relative to the spot market.

Network Activity and DeFi Liquidity Trail the Rally

Cardanoscan displayed approximately 17,300 active addresses over 24 hours, while Token Terminal reported around 15,800. The platforms use different methodologies, so the figures represent separate estimates rather than directly interchangeable measurements.

Cardanoscan recorded roughly 325,500 transactions over 15 days, equivalent to about 21,700 transactions per day. That pace remained below the reported January-to-August average of 24,869 daily transactions and the first-quarter average of 26,550.

The reporting windows are not identical, but the available figures do not indicate a transaction breakout corresponding with the weekly price increase. Cardano’s average transaction fee stood near $0.085 on September 21, although low fees are part of the network’s design and do not independently measure demand.

DefiLlama placed Cardano’s total value locked near $66 million, an increase of approximately 12% over seven days. The network’s native asset appreciated by around 20% during the same period.

Dollar-denominated TVL rises when deposited crypto assets gain value. Because TVL increased more slowly than the underlying asset, the dollar gain does not establish a proportionate increase in the quantity of assets deposited into DeFi protocols.

Stablecoin supply provides a separate liquidity measure because its dollar value is not directly lifted by rising crypto prices. Cardano’s stablecoin market capitalization stood near $68.3 million, with different DefiLlama snapshots placing seven-day growth between 0.25% and 0.6%.

USDCx represented about 68% of the total, making it Cardano’s largest source of dollar-denominated liquidity. Its introduction materially expanded the network’s stablecoin infrastructure during 2026, but the latest weekly data did not record a comparable new inflow of stablecoin capital.

Cardano DEX Volume Remains Concentrated

Reported DEX volume increased during the latest period, although changes across DefiLlama snapshots produced a substantial difference in the 30-day total.

The variation came primarily from Dano Finance, a specialized venue associated with Optim bond tokens. Depending on the snapshot, Dano accounted for between approximately $82 million and $135 million in monthly volume.

Removing Dano Finance produced almost the same result across the conflicting datasets: approximately $34 million in 30-day DEX volume from the rest of the Cardano ecosystem. Most of the headline monthly activity was therefore concentrated in one venue rather than distributed across the network’s major decentralized exchanges.

Cardano-native derivatives provided a separate source of measurable usage. Strike Finance recorded approximately $11.2 million in perpetual trading volume over 24 hours, $65.7 million over seven days and $227.5 million over 30 days. Open interest stood near $957,000.

Those figures document active use of a Cardano-based trading product while also reflecting concentration within one protocol and one market segment.

Broader confirmation would require active addresses and transactions to increase alongside stablecoin supply, underlying DeFi deposits and DEX turnover across several venues. Spot volume would also need to keep pace with derivatives activity rather than leaving an increasing share of the move dependent on leveraged positions.

The market has moved ahead of the network. Demand for Cardano’s native asset has strengthened, but users, deployable dollar liquidity and distributed application activity have not yet recorded a comparable expansion. The gap will close only if those indicators begin advancing together across multiple weeks.