Cardano witnessed some important developments in the last few days, while its native token experienced a substantial pullback. We will explore these topics further in the following lines.

Grayscale shows further support for Cardano

Earlier this year, the leading digital asset manager, Grayscale, added Cardano (ADA) to its Smart Contract Fund. The investment vehicle provides accredited investors indirect exposure to a diversified portfolio of cryptocurrencies associated with smart contract platforms. 

The entity recently rebalanced the fund, solidifying Cardano as its third-largest holding at 22.91%. Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) are at the first two spots, with a respective share of 30.92% and 29.05%.

On the other hand, Cardano is ahead of Avalanche (AVAX), Sui (SUI), and Polkadot (DOT), whose combined weight is around 17%.

Partnership with Ripple on the way?

Ripple’s post on X, uploaded at the start of the week, stirred excitement among the community that a collaboration with Cardano might be incoming.

The speculation comes from the fact that the video starts with a brief representation of Cardano’s logo, while later, the topic moves to tokenization and its possible progress in the following years.

This isn’t the first time rumors of a deal between the two have surfaced. Not long ago, Cardano’s founder, Charles Hoskinson, suggested that the entity might incorporate Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, into its ecosystem. Prior to that, he and Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse shared positive remarks about each other.

Meanwhile, Hoskinson recently hinted about an upcoming collaboration between Cardano and Bitcoin, teasing a demo integration that could take place next month.

ADA price outlook

As mentioned above, the price of Cardano’s native cryptocurrency has witnessed a solid retreat lately. Currently, it trades at approximately $0.56 (per CoinGecko’s data), representing a 16% weekly decline.

The X user Bitcoin Wukong recently claimed that despite the bearish environment, $0.58 and $0.45 remain “strong support levels on a larger timeframe.” 

“I’ll be buying and holding at these levels—patience is key. Let’s see how it plays out,” they added.

ETF approval odds head south

An important development that could act as a price catalyst for the asset is the approval of a spot ADA exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the USA. Earlier this year, Grayscale filed with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to launch such a product. 

The fund will allow investors to gain direct exposure to ADA without the complexities of owning and managing the cryptocurrency themselves. Of course, it must first receive the necessary green light from the relevant regulators. 

Last month, the approval odds before the end of 2025 spiked to 70%. In the past few weeks, though, the optimism started to vaporize, and as of now, the chances stand at around 52% (according to Polymarket).