Yesterday, it was revealed that Grayscale filed a 19b-4 application with the SEC for a spot ETF on ADA (Cardano).
This is the sixtieth request submitted to the SEC for the issuance of a crypto ETF since Trump won the elections, but it is the first in the USA that concerns Cardano.
The layer-1 blockchain Cardano
Cardano is a crypto project that has been around for a long time, dating back to 2017.
It is defined as a “third-generation” blockchain and stands out from other blockchain projects for its scientific and academic approach.
In fact, the development team, led by Charles Hoskinson, relies on peer-reviewed research to implement new features and improvements.
One of its main features is decentralized governance, although for now this is not yet a fully developed feature: Cardano indeed aims for decentralized governance, allowing ADA holders to participate in decisions on the development of the platform through voting.
Unfortunately, however, the consequence of all this is that development on Cardano is not fast, and this has meant that over the years it has not managed to get closer to Ethereum, and for some alternative uses (especially in DeFi) it has been surpassed by more recent projects, but faster in development.
The price of ADA soars after the ETF request on Cardano
The native cryptocurrency of Cardano is ADA.
After the news of Grayscale’s request for the issuance of a spot ETF in the USA, its price suddenly rose by 15%.
However, extending the analysis to a longer period reveals that it is fundamentally just a bounce.
Before Trump’s electoral victory, when ADA was under attack by the SEC, which considered it an unregistered security, its price had dropped to just over $0.3. With Trump’s victory, however, it jumped to more than $1.2 within a month.
Since then, however, it has not been able to continue the climb, so much so that first it retraced to $0.8, and then it retraced even below $0.7.
In fact, on Monday, February 3, it almost reached $0.6, only to start a rebound that today has brought it back to $0.8.
The current price level is not much higher than the peaks of the first half of last year, and it is still at -74% from the highs of 2021. Therefore, today’s movement is only a short-term movement that would need much more confirmation to be considered something more significant.
Crypto ETFs: is the one on ADA (Cardano) coming?
Products similar to crypto ETFs had already existed for years on many European exchanges. Additionally, in the USA, there were already some crypto ETFs even before 2024, but they were collateralized in futures and not in cryptocurrencies.
The first landing of a spot crypto ETF on the US exchanges dates back to January 2024, with the arrival of spot Bitcoin ETFs.
That launch turned out to be a great success, so much so that it led the price of Bitcoin to record new all-time highs a few months before the halving, something that had never happened before.
In July, the spot Ethereum ETFs were also launched, but they did not have the same success.
To tell the truth, despite the enthusiasm for spot crypto ETFs that might arrive from now on the US exchanges, as far as altcoins are concerned, it is easier to imagine a success similar to that achieved by the ETFs on Ethereum, rather than one similar to that achieved by those on Bitcoin.
Furthermore, during 2025, several spot crypto ETFs are expected to land on the USA stock exchanges, on various cryptocurrencies, including in particular Litecoin, Solana, XRP, and Dogecoin.
In light of this, it is difficult to imagine that an ETF on Cardano could have a resounding success, and it is probably for this reason that today’s price rebound of ADA was relatively contained.
