Cardano leads top 10 with 10% gain – But sentiment says bulls aren’t back

Cardano climbed 10% in the past 24 hours, leading the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

Daily trading volume jumped 144% to $839 million at press time, signaling renewed trading activity across ADA markets.

The rally coincided with broader market strength. The crypto market rose 3.19%, while the Altcoin Season Index climbed to 46.

That reading suggested altcoins drove much of the market’s recent momentum.

Analyzing the top 10 cryptos’ performance

Despite leading daily gains, Cardano [ADA] ranked among assets with the most bearish sentiment.

CoinMarketCap data showed ADA sentiment near 25%, the fifth-lowest among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

TRON [TRX] also appeared on the list with sentiment near 24%.

However, this weak sentiment raised concerns around Cardano’s stability within the top ten rankings.

Cardano’s market capitalization stood roughly $400 million ahead of Hyperliquid [HYPE], leaving a limited buffer against a ranking shift.

That sentiment aligned with recent distribution activity among ADA whales. Large holders had reduced positions earlier this week.

Such a distribution introduced additional selling pressure before the current rally began.

Even so, the top ten cryptocurrencies traded mostly higher during the same period.

That shift left traders watching Cardano’s technical setup closely.

Can ADA breach $0.30?

The price action chart showed ADA was rising toward the $0.30 resistance level that had been the top for the one-and-a-half-month range.

The Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) was positive, with the indicator showing a net buy volume of 40.44 million ADA. Additionally, the MACD was green with increasing bars, indicating bulls were gaining strength.

The key question rested on ADA surpassing $0.30 despite having rejected a breakout more than three times. However, a breakout would push the altcoin to $0.36, which was its second most recent lower high.

Conversely, ADA could revisit the $0.25 zone if the range movement continued, as previous reactions showed. That said, what was driving the day’s rally that outpaced all its peers?

Cardano’s Perps vs. DEX volumes

Cardano was driven by the trading volume on the futures market rather than that on decentralized exchanges (DEXs). As per DefiLlama, the Perpetual Volume was $5.79 million, which was more than 5x that of DEXs at $871K.

In fact, CoinGlass data from all exchanges showed that there was a total of $23.79 million in cumulative long liquidation leverage compared to $12.28 million in shorts.

Altogether, Cardano led the top chains with daily gains from leveraged bull positions and a short-term bullish technical outlook. However, sentiment and whale distribution could mean the altcoin is far from breaking out of the range.

Final Summary