T. Rowe Price's Active Crypto ETF now holds Cardano, handing the token a regulated entry point after months of eligibility questions.
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Cardano jumps 11% as T. Rowe adds ADA to active ETF
Cardano rose 11% to $0.212 on Aug. 21 after T. Rowe Price added ADA to its Active Crypto ETF, giving the token a 0.43% weighting.
"Cardano reclaiming $3 is a matter of when, not if," Jure Karamarko, founder of Cardano-based project SongMarketCap, said on X, pointing to the token's push back toward levels last seen during the 2021 bull run.
T. Rowe Price, which manages $1.87 trillion in assets, launched TKNZ on NYSE Arca in July after the U.S. SEC approved the fund in June. At launch, the fund held Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, Solana, XRP, Hyperliquid, Stellar, Dogecoin, USD Coin, and cash equivalents — but not Cardano, despite earlier filings flagging ADA as eligible. The asset manager has now followed through, with ADA ranking as the fund's 10th-largest holding at a 0.44% weighting, according to data from T. Rowe Price's website. Based on TKNZ's $16.47 million in net assets, the position is worth roughly $72,500.
The inclusion matters beyond the dollar figure. TKNZ cannot invest in every cryptocurrency; its prospectus applies eligibility criteria covering regulatory classification, liquidity, custody, valuation, and an asset's ability to be held within a regulated product, and it excludes assets deemed securities under U.S. federal law. ADA's addition therefore indicates T. Rowe Price considers Cardano compliant with that framework, giving traditional investors another regulated route to the token.
Cardano's institutional footprint is widening. ADA already appears in the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund, the Grayscale Smart Contract Fund, and the Hashdex Nasdaq CME Crypto Index ETF. The TKNZ addition follows Grayscale's voluntary withdrawal of a standalone Cardano ETF filing on Aug. 10, a move that briefly pushed ADA to $0.196 before the token recovered.
Network activity is rising alongside price. Cardano DEX volumes climbed to $4.68 million on Aug. 21 from $1.3 million on Aug. 19, while DeFi TVL rose to 298 million ADA from 291 million ADA, according to DefiLlama. The uptick coincides with the upcoming Dijkstra upgrade, part of Cardano's Voltaire governance phase.
ADA traded at $0.2074 as of 08:45 UTC, up 13.76% over 24 hours, with volume of roughly $802 million and a market cap of $7.58 billion, per CoinGecko. The token briefly surpassed $0.19 in the prior session before pulling back. Holding above $0.196 keeps the door open for a retest of the swing high near $0.2095, while a break above the 200-day moving average near $0.22 could open a path toward $0.25.
The TKNZ allocation does not create a dedicated Cardano fund, but it shows a $1.9 trillion asset manager can hold the token inside a regulated structure without friction. With CME futures history approaching six months and the Dijkstra upgrade pending, the conditions for a future single-asset filing are closer than they were weeks ago.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
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