Grayscale Investments has once again increased its exposure to Cardano (ADA) within its Smart Contract Fund. The fund's ADA weighting has risen to 20.12%, up from 19.50%, marking another consecutive increase. While seemingly incremental, analysts note that repeated institutional accumulation often signals a deeper strategic shift.
Crypto analyst Dave, with approximately 25,000 followers, highlighted the move on social media platform X, suggesting Grayscale's growing interest may be linked to Cardano's strategic pivot towards Bitcoin DeFi (BTCFi). This emerging theme focuses on unlocking Bitcoin's vast, idle liquidity for use in decentralized finance applications like lending and collateral systems. Cardano is positioning itself not as a direct competitor to other Layer-1 blockchains, but as a potential bridge for Bitcoin-native utility.
However, this institutional optimism contrasts with a notable cooling in speculative market activity. Data shows Cardano's derivatives open interest has stalled below the $500 million mark, recently slipping to around $431 million. This decline of roughly 2.5% reflects a broader "wait-and-see" attitude among traders, as ADA's price remains range-bound despite positive developments.
Market observers suggest that for Cardano to recapture significant trader attention and momentum, it may require a major catalyst. This could come in the form of tangible ecosystem developments—such as progress on its Layer-2 scalability solution, Hydra—broader crypto market momentum, or a decisive technical price breakout. The current dichotomy highlights a market where institutional accumulation is occurring quietly in the background, even as short-term speculative interest retreats.
