Cardano Holds $0.2 Despite Grayscale ETF Withdrawal

Cardano Holds the Line Despite ETF Setback

Cardano demonstrated resilience on the price charts despite suffering a strategic blow from one of crypto’s leading asset managers. According to SEC filings, Grayscale submitted Form RW withdrawal notices on August 7, formally canceling its S-1 registration statements for three spot ETFs: Cardano, Hedera, and Polkadot. The filing disclosed that Grayscale’s Cardano ETF Registration Statement had never been declared effective and no securities had been issued or sold under the registration. The withdrawal represented a major retreat by one of institutional crypto’s largest players at a crucial moment for spot ADA ETF prospects.

Regulatory Milestone Achieved Despite Grayscale Exit

Cardano achieved a critical regulatory achievement on August 9: the network completed six months of CME futures trading, fulfilling a core requirement under the SEC’s Generic Listing Standards. This milestone theoretically opens a streamlined pathway for future spot ETF applications. However, the timing proved bittersweet. Grayscale’s withdrawal came just days before—and arguably in anticipation of—this milestone, eliminating the expected late-October 2026 decision window that would have come if Grayscale’s GADA-ticker product had pursued immediate effectiveness. Community members had initially rallied around the CME milestone as validation of Cardano’s regulatory standing, but the celebration proved short-lived.

Price Action and Development Roadmap

ADA faced sharp selling pressure over the weekend following news of Grayscale’s withdrawal, sliding to an intraday low of $0.194. The token recovered early Monday, testing $0.199 intraday, before settling near $0.195—representing a 0.5% decline over 24 hours. Technical traders view $0.211 as the next meaningful resistance hurdle, with the 200-day simple moving average at $0.232 representing a secondary target should bullish momentum build. On the downside, support is expected around $0.17, where buyers have historically emerged during broader sell-offs.

Despite the ETF setback, Cardano’s development pipeline continued advancing. The Dijkstra hard fork scope for Phase 1 has been finalized, with mainnet delivery targeted for the end of 2026. Phase 1 introduces Nested Transactions and Linear Leios, technical enhancements designed to improve scalability and transaction composability. Phase 2, focused on the Peras consensus mechanism, is scheduled for activation in Q2 2027. Separately, Cardano achieved an interoperability breakthrough by establishing connectivity with Injective, enabling ADA and INJ tokens to flow across both blockchain ecosystems—a key development in the broader multichain infrastructure trend.

Cardano’s experience underscores that regulatory progress in crypto unfolds through incremental milestones—a pattern likely to shape the path forward for XRP and the broader ecosystem.

Source: SEC, via U.Today. Not financial advice.