Cardano DEX volume triples to $7.28M as ADA whales accumulate

Cardano's decentralized-exchange volume tripled to $7.28 million within 48 hours, lifting ADA 17 percent to $0.224 as whale wallets accumulated 60 million tokens.

DeFiLlama data shows Cardano DEX trading climbed from $2.01 million to $7.28 million, while Santiment on-chain intelligence recorded addresses holding 1 million to 10 million ADA adding 60 million tokens since Sunday. The buying during price dips has supplied steady upward pressure through the week.

Total value locked on Cardano rose to 299.81 million ADA from 268.47 million ADA on Aug. 28, an increase of more than 31 million ADA in under two weeks. CoinGlass futures data put ADA's long-to-short ratio at 1.10, near its one-month peak, with funding rates turning positive at 0.0087 percent on Friday.

ADA trades above its 50-day and 100-day exponential moving averages but below the 200-day EMA near $0.245, with the Relative Strength Index at 64. Resistance sits at the 61.8 percent Fibonacci retracement around $0.231, followed by $0.236, while support rests near $0.213. DeFi platform RealFi is scheduled to deploy on Cardano on Oct. 1.

On-chain demand, not speculative flows

The DEX volume expansion points to utility demand for ADA rather than leveraged positioning, a distinction that matters for how durable the rally proves. Stablecoin capitalization on Cardano has meanwhile contracted to $63.97 million from $67.95 million, per DeFiLlama, indicating the burst is concentrated in native-asset trading pairs rather than stablecoin activity.

The path through $0.231

One analyst on X projects a 14x advance to roughly $2.92, arguing ADA has already established its cycle bottom. Market commentator Sssebi said "ADA is not giving up," framing repeated tests of resistance as a setup for a breakout rather than exhaustion.

For ADA to extend gains, it must clear the $0.231-to-$0.245 band where Fibonacci resistance converges with the 200-day EMA. A sustained break above that zone would open the path toward the analyst's longer-term target, while a failure risks a pullback to the $0.213 support and the 100-day EMA at $0.198.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.