Cardano‘s ADA token surged 12% to $0.27, marking its highest price level in five months. This sharp move stood out in a largely flat cryptocurrency market, with both Bitcoin and Ethereum showing little price movement during the same period.
Leios upgrade and founder’s comments fuel rally
The rally gathered momentum following two main events: the introduction of a new decentralized finance (DeFi) platform and a strong social media response from Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano. After ADA started rising, Hoskinson shared a 15-minute ADA/USDT chart showing the token climbing from about $0.244 to $0.264. His repost included the hashtag #LeiosIsComing, quickly making it the project’s slogan of the day and drawing market attention to the next major upgrade.
Cardano’s founder highlighted, “#LeiosIsComing,” which turned into a central teaser for the network’s expected scalability developments.
The upcoming Linear Leios upgrade, specified as CIP-164, promises a significant boost to Cardano’s blockchain throughput. The current main chain, known as Ouroboros Praos, will maintain security and order, while separate endorser blocks will be added. These new blocks allow larger sets of transactions, which are verified using BLS signatures by stake pools and then included in the ledger together.
Mini dictionary: BLS signatures, or Boneh–Lynn–Shacham signatures, are cryptographic signatures enabling the efficient and secure validation of grouped transactions in blockchain networks.
Since June 2026, the Linear Leios solution has been tested on the Musashi Dojo testnet, where it has delivered a sixfold increase in data processing speed. Under optimal conditions, network developers estimate that throughput could increase between 10 and 65 times.
Factors behind ADA’s rise and potential challenges ahead
The initial surge in ADA’s price was triggered by the October 1 launch of RealFi, which brings tokenized real-world assets (RWA) to the Cardano mainnet. Additional momentum came from the integration of the USDr stablecoin into DeFi platforms Lace, Liqwid, and SundaeSwap. These events produced a bullish technical formation, as the 50-day moving average crossed above the 200-day moving average—a signal known as a Golden Cross—while the daily momentum index climbed to 68.69.
| Event | Date | Impact on ADA |
|---|---|---|
| RealFi mainnet launch | October 1 | Boosted price and optimism |
| USDr stablecoin integration | Ongoing | Increased platform utility |
| Leios test phase on Musashi Dojo | Since June 2026 | Throughput up to 6x |
Despite short liquidations at $0.264, trading activity on Cardano’s decentralized exchanges has not kept pace with ADA’s jump, indicating that market excitement outpaces actual DeFi growth. The long-term outlook may also be challenged by the delayed deployment of the Leios upgrade, which is scheduled for late 2026 as part of the Dijkstra hard fork.
Integrating Leios will require Cardano’s stake pool operators to manually register their cryptographic keys. Once active, network throughput will increase gradually as system parameters are adjusted. Meanwhile, traders are watching $0.28 as the next significant resistance level for ADA’s price.
